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Apple gadgets gobble 80 percent of mobile video

Up against entrenched iPods and iPhones and the surging iPad, Android devices nabbed just 20 percent of all wireless video views in the first quarter, says video service provider FreeWheel.

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Apple's mobile devices reign supreme in wireless video.
Apple's mobile devices reign supreme in wireless video. FreeWheel

Apple's mobile devices are dominating the wireless video-viewing marketplace, a new report from video service provider FreeWheel has found.

According to the company in its Monetization Report, which tallies over 10 billion video views, 30 percent of all videos FreeWheel analyzed during the first quarter were watched on the iPhone. Another 30 percent of viewers used the iPod to watch video content while on the go. Apple's iPad secured 20 percent market share, bringing the company's total video viewership in the first quarter to 80 percent.

Android accounted for 20 percent of the market during the period.

FreeWheel said that Apple's dominance makes sense, due to the sheer number of the company's products in use around the world.

"Their user base has had these types of devices longest and tends to use them as much for media consumption as for communication," the company said.

FreeWheel also pointed out that Apple's success in the mobile video market reflects the desires of developers offering content to users. With such a big presence in the mobile space, FreeWheel says, Apple's iPhone, iPod, and iPad were the first logical destination for video content.

"It also reflects the development priorities of content producers and distributors: they optimized their content first for the Apple platforms, with Android a later priority," the company said in its Monetization Report.

Moving away from platforms, FreeWheel said that news content was the most popular type of video viewed on the mobile devices. The biggest mobile-viewing days occurred in March when the devastating magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit Japan. Mobile video viewing also jumped during NCAA March Madness. March 11, the day the earthquake hit Japan, saw the most video views.

One other interesting tidbit from the FreeWheel report: mobile video viewing is highest on Saturday, reaching 13 percent more traffic than the lowest-viewing day, Tuesday.

(Via GigaOm)