iPad Dominates, But Nook Web Traffic Tops Kindle Fire

Not surprisingly, the iPad continued to dominate tablet traffic during the first week of June, but more notable is the fact that traffic for the Barnes & Noble Nook surpassed that of the Amazon Kindle Fire, according to stats from mobile ad network Chitika.

Apple's iPad made up 91.07 percent of the hundreds of millions of impressions captured on the Chitika Ad network between June 4 and June 10. That was down 3.5 percent from May, but still a sizeable chunk, Chitika said.

Coming in at No. 2 was Samsung's Galaxy Tab, but it was a distant second. Samsung's tablet only had 1.77 percent of the market, followed by the Acer Iconia Tab, Toshiba Thrive, and Asus Transformer Prime, which captured between 1 and 1.5 percent market share.

Chitika, however, took note of the fifth most popular tablet - the Barnes & Noble Nook. The retailer's device captured 0.85 percent of the market, which bested Amazon's Kindle Fire at 0.71 percent.

"Barnes & Noble has launched a new advertising campaign, and their newest device sold out within weeks," Chitika said. "While that device is a simple e-reader without Web browsing capabilities, the increase in Nook use may be attributed to brand familiarity through these advertisements."

Barnes & Noble and Amazon unveiled their respective tablets late last year, just prior to the holiday shopping rush. By December, the Fire was the No. 2 tablet on the market, but that dropped off in the New Year. According to May data from IDC, Amazon's Kindle Fire market share dropped from 16.8 percent over the holidays to 4 percent several months later.

Going forward, Chitika predicted that the iPad will eventually have a tablet market share that's comparable to its smartphone penetration. But that won't happen overnight; the release of Windows 8-based tablets will be a big determiner.

"The rise in use of non-iPad tablets is likely an effect of the increased options for consumers (hundreds of models are available), in addition to declining tablet prices," Chitika said.

"Without a doubt, the tablet market has become a real and significant source of Web traffic, and developers must be sure their sites are formatted across all operating systems," the firm continued. "Outside of Web traffic, applications running on tablets present a huge opportunity for advertisers to reach their desired market."

For more, see PCMag's full review of the new iPad and the slideshow below. Also check out our reviews of the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet.