“A new analysis of iPad user data has revealed some interesting trends among Apple product owners, including the fact that the landscape orientation may be more popular than portrait,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“In the first edition of its new monthly usage report, Onswipe revealed that, among the users it tracks, 59.8 percent prefer landscape mode, while the remaining 41.2 percent choose portrait,” Hughes reports. “The data comes from 127 million users served over the last two years by its media publishing platform.”
Hughes reports, “The iPad remains the dominant platform among tablet users tracked by Onswipe, accounting for 94.1 percent of traffic. Amazon’s Kindle Fire comes in second with just 4.1 percent, while Android tablets are 1.8 percent.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iPad users, which do you prefer? Take our poll on the left side of the main site.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
Use and like both.
I would think it’s more like 75-80% landscape. I rarely see anyone holding it or using it in portrait. Landscape seems better for almost everything. I really like how the iPad in landscape is just about as wide as a piece of paper. Great for reading and browsing.
Mine is locked in landscape 95% of the time. I especially love reading in bed or on the couch with it locked in landscape because I can lay sideways, hold the iPad sideways but have the text oriented with my eyes.
I’m a portrait guy myself. You obviously haven’t seen me out there in the wild.
I’m a portrait guy myself. You obviously haven’t seen me out there in the wild.
Ooh finally this “news” broke. The question has been nagging on me for years. Thank you news agencies for relieving my sole. Now I need to figure out how many people peruse the web while on their back, vs stomach. Please don’t let this answer be another multi-year wait.
87% = Back. 13% = Stomach.
Figures certified by the NSA.
Which orientation do you prefer, and are you (allowed to be) married to it?
seems like we’re giving our opinion on peoples orientation all the time these days. 😉
I believe in full orientation equality, although I have my own preference…
What does it mean to vote my previous comment one star?
Well duh. I just realized I almost NEVER use Portrait mode on the iPad. Nothing intentional. My favorite time with me iPad is in bed at night just before dozing off. It’s akin to when you were a kid with a flashlight reading comics under the covers. Except you have the whole world at your fingertips, while comfortably horizontal. No way can you be bored.
“It’s akin to when you were a kid with a flashlight reading comics under the covers. Except you have the whole world at your fingertips..”
nice analogy.
Mine’s been locked in portrait since April 2010. I only use widescreen for video.
Me too.
I prefer landscape because my Smart Cover is set that way. Also, since the power plug is on the bottom, it is way more awkward to use it in portrait mode when charging.
It still amazes/annoys me that I can not use iPhone apps in landscape mode. This is a huge miss for iOS.
Apple’s history was so consistency with its products.
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/investing/apples-product-timeline-the-best-of-the-best.html/?a=viewall
Landscape is definitely superior in many ways.
It depends on which iPad we’re talking about. The full sized iPad, yeah, I mostly use in landscape because I’m almost always sitting with it in my lap. With the iPad mini, however, it gets a lot more use in portrait because I can comfortably hold it one-handed for an extended period of time.
Of course it is…Porn looks terrible in portrait!
I don’t watch porn movies…I star in them.
Star in them? Could be, but the pony has his name above yours in the credits.
lol
okay, you’re such a stud, let’s see you compete with Mr. Ed.
As a stud I don’t have to brag. My “reputation” precedes me.
oh yeah, I heard about the boys at the floral shop tittering about your performance.
You spend your time in a floral shop? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
lol, yes I’m a delicate flower.
Landscape for almost everything, due to using the Logitech keyboard all time while working. But portrait for all ibook reading and zinio magazine reading.
I’d prefer that people can’t track every aspect of my life right down to which way I’m holding my tablet computer. But that’s just me.
Landscape 99% of the time, which is why the placement of the headphone jack is fuckiing retarded!!!!
Ive: give your head a shake !
And FCOL put proper stereo speakes for the landscape majority, not the idiotic way it’s done on iPad mini with both speakers surrounding the data port.
I fail to understand the purpose of putting two speakers on a device such as the iPad (not to mention iPad mini). The sound coming out of those speakers is quite poor, so the only purpose of having a speaker is to allow the user to hear something when headphones aren’t connected.
The purpose of proper stereo speakers is to enable user to achieve, through proper placement of those speakers, a two-dimensional sonic image of high fidelity, of the sound played through the system. There is really no way a stereophonic acoustic effect can be perceived with tiny speakers placed less than a meter (3 ft) apart from each other). To make the effect perceptible, the distance between the speakers must be significantly greater than the distance between our ears (i.e. 1m or larger); otherwise, the two-dimensional space is simply not discernible.
I think I missed something in school.
59.8 +41.2 = 100???
Um. What?
Amazon’s Kindle Fire comes in second with just 4.1 percent, while Android tablets are 1.8 percent.
So, considering that the Kindle Fire is an Android tablet, how can Android tablets be only 1.8 percent? I sense a whiff of TechTardiness in the air. Yet again, crap tech journalism.
New tech kids on the block:
Kick these dummies to the curb please.
Much appreciated. 😀
“Kick these dummies to the curb please.”
Ha! I like the way you said that.
😄
While technically true, you can forgive them for not knowing that Kindle’s Android. It’s a highly customized fork of Android, different enough to say that it’s essentially “Amazon Android” and a different OS.
Technically, every company’s use of Android is a customized fork. I read today (probably old news) that Google is going to perpetrate yet-another version of the Samsung S4 with yet-another custom version of Android, Google’s own customization. Thus the term: Fragdroid. What an incredible mess.
As weird as that sounds, I never thought of doing general browsing in landscape. Don’t know why.
MDN does not work well in landscape mode. The article titles get cut off, truncated somehow (I also wish it was faster, way faster, like Pulse)…
Portrait or Landscape? Who cares?
Far more important in the article is that the iPad has 94.1% of the tablet traffic.
Android has 1.8% and Kindle Fire has the other 4.1%.
Why wasnt this demographic the headline instead of the ridiculous orientation thing?
Android is going nowhere and Windows is invisible.
Portrait for me
Lots of games and books and movies have no portrait orientation. Some apps have additional features (made visible) in landscape. That said, for me it’s probably 50/50 i.e. no preference, and sometimes I’ve been annoyed at the lack of a portrait option.
… and oh, yeah- if one properly blocks this ridiculously ad-riddled site, that poll on the left side they want you to take totally disappears.
Portrait here. Wonder how much the figures are skewed by gaming and video viewing?
And does anyone else thing Apple should lock video recording in landscape mode, to protect users from themselves?
I prefer Landscape, just easier to hold and balance horizontally. I’d be in Landscape more if some games I play didn’t require me to be in portrait.
94.1 percent of traffic… Outch… A big disappointment! Warning! Analysts will now lower price targets.