iOS, Android, and Web traffic: Same old, same old

Apple and Google are very nearly in the same spot as they were six months ago when it comes to Web traffic, a new study says.

Advertising and analytics company Chitika today put out new numbers from a six-month study of U.S. and Canadian Web traffic collected from ad impressions by iOS and Android devices. The main finding is that both mobile operating systems are still very nearly in the same spot as where they started, despite major product launches on both sides.

Apple closed in on 67 percent of the overall Web traffic that Chitika recorded, ending on November 27. That's up 2 percent from where it started near the end of May. Google's Android, meanwhile, ended at 33 percent, down 2 percent from where it started off.

The big reason, the ad company surmises, is that two quick tablet releases on Apple's part (the third- and fourth-generation models), helped grow the company's share.

"This data may also suggest that users largely don't switch between different OSes when they upgrade their device," Chitika wrote in a post announcing the results. "Should this be true, manufacturers of Android devices are competing more with each other for customers, while Apple is in little danger of having its user base dwindle."

The analysis comes just behind a pair of reports last week highlighting the changing landscape of market share between the two tech giants. The latest, from ComScore, showed Apple gaining on rivals -- including Samsung -- for cell phone market share in the U.S., topping LG for the first time. Even so, a report from ABI Research just days before said Apple's in trouble when it comes to tablets -- the company saw a 14 percent decline in tablet market share from the previous quarter, falling to its lowest level since the first iPad debuted in 2010.

Updated at 12:58 p.m. PT to clarify that the Chikita study only examined U.S. and Canadian Web traffic.