Do you ever get the feeling that, during the 80s and 90s, while Apple was struggling to stay afloat as an upstart rival to the PC, the company was just waiting for mobile technology to take hold? While many Apple device users don’t remember a time when they were considered more of a niche company that made computers aimed at high-end users, some of us do, and to see Apple as such a dominant player in the mobile device industry is still something of a surprise.

Make no mistake, however, because aside from some moderate resistance from the Android platform in the United States, Apple’s stable of iDevices (iPhone, iPad and iTouch) are the dominant brand when it comes to the mobile web consumption, which gives some insight to how many users each platform has. The latest data from comScore confirms Apple’s position quite well, especially when it comes to tablets. While the technology is still in the uptake stage, if there was such a thing as a technical knockout in the tech business sector, you could go ahead and raise the arms of the iPad. Apple’s position in the tablet market is so ahead of the competition, it’s hard not to think companies like Samsung and BlackBerry are just wasting time with their tablet developments.

Granted, not everyone is apart of the Cult of Mac, so there are certainly some would-be tablet owners who are looking for an alternative to Apple’s platform. That being said, it’s also good being first, apparently. An example of the Apple’s tablet dominance, courtesy of comScore, reveals that over 89 percent of the worldwide traffic in regards to tablet access belongs to the iPad. It should be noted, however, in another section, it was revealed that, in the United States, only 1.8 percent of web traffic (accessing news sites) comes from tablet devices.

So while iPads are indeed dominant, there’s still a helluva lot of room for growth in that market.

In regards to the iPhone, it’s position of dominance is still maintained throughout the world, expect, surprisingly, in the United States. In some countries — Japan, Australia, Singapore — the iPhone is responsible for almost 50 percent (or more) of the mobile phone web traffic. However, in the U.S., the Android platform is actually more popular, in terms of web traffic, than the iPhone is, to the tune of 35.6 percent to 23.5 percent. The only other country that exceeds 30 percent in regards to the Android is Japan.

A chart of comScore’s study. Click for a bigger image:

Another area of focus was WiFi usage across these device platforms. Not surprisingly, a great deal of Apple customers used the WiFi function a great deal more than Android users, although, Google’s phone had good success in Mobile Network Access:

One area of surprise, however, comes from the fact that, despite what we’re led to believe, a great deal of web traffic still comes from home computers. In fact, the only country that exceeds six percent mobile device access is the United Kingdom with 7.4 percent (1.9 for tablets). Meanwhile, even with that, the largest percentage of mobile users, over 90 percent of UK web users are using a home computer to access the web.

comScore’s chart:

Perhaps the decline of the PC market isn’t as pending as one might think.

Lead image courtesy.