Apple tops Samsung in North American mobile Web traffic

Apple iPhone owners continue to surpass users of Samsung phones at generating a greater level of Web traffic in North America, according to a report from online ad network Chitika.

In new data released Monday, Chitika found that Apple accounted for 52.3 percent of all smartphone traffic seen on the Web in the US and Canada last month, a slight dip from February. Over the same time, Samsung's percentage inched up by 1.2 points to 26.4 percent, about half of Apple's share.

Together, Apple and Samsung virtually own all of the Web traffic seen in North America, just as the two own most of the smartphone market in general. The dominance of these players leaves little room for other vendors to win more market share and capture more customers.

In third place among Chitika's findings was LG with 4.8 percent of Web traffic, followed by Motorola with 3.4 percent, HTC with 3 percent, and Nokia with 1.4 percent. Chitika attributed LG's share to the July launch of its new G3 flagship phone. The findings were based on ad impressions generated within Chitika's ad network from July 1 through 28.

HTC and BlackBerry were hit by the biggest declines in Web traffic, at 0.4 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively. HTC has had trouble generating enough consumer demand and market share for its new HTC One M8 phone. And BlackBerry is striving to segue to other businesses and services amid falling consumer interest and sales for its phones.

But the dominance of Apple and Samsung in Web traffic and market share is likely to surge in the second half of this year. That's when Apple is expected to release one or possibly two models of its iPhone 6 , while Samsung will unveil two new high-end smartphones, one of which could be the Galaxy Note 4.