The “app vs. web” discussion is a rather complex one and we wouldn’t want to get into the topic of whether the future lies with native or web-based apps and traffic (or maybe both). Additionally, in the short term, this probably isn’t of relevance to app developers out there. However, it is apparent how few web sites out there have a mobile (just mobile, not even device specific) optimized version of their online site. Additionally, without naming anyone in specific, it sometimes seems some companies rather build an app-version of their website instead of creating a simple mobile site. It thus might appear as if mobile web traffic was not relevant for any kind of marketing.

Whatever the case, mobile websites are relatively easy to create and will in the short term probably see an increase in usage (if they are usable). And admob’s recent findings – although of course slightly biased – make clear that there is at least one correlation between apps and mobile web usage. The data implies that about 75% of all smartphone web traffic is made up by either Apple or Android devices and in fact 55% of overall traffic is made up by iPhone OS. The combination of smartphones (thus rich browsing capabilities) with unlimited data plans is probably a main reason for these numbers.

Most important for you: those devices leading in mobile web traffic also lead in app downloads, with the iPhone as a clear leader regarding any kind of key figure.

Why could this be relevant for your marketing? Well, the data implies that in the future mobile websites will be relevant for your app marketing not only because the devices that you build your apps for are the ones most widely used for smartphone web browsing (or web browsing overall) but also because you can target certain devices or device-specifics via mobile web browsers. On top of that, it means that wherever your target group might be browsing, they are highly prone and used to downloading apps.

Knowing where and when to market on the mobile web might be an invaluable knowledge for the success of your app performance and thus your app business.