Pandora had a total cross-platform audience of 37.4 million visitors in August, with mobile-only visitors accounting for 52 percent of the total, according to a new report by comScore.  

The report highlights consumers? growing cross-media consumption habits. According to comScore, more publishers could start to see similar numbers as they leverage the growing popularity of connected devices for media consumption.

?The increasingly widespread availability of portable Web-enabled devices such as smartphones and tablets have significant implications on the way people consume digital media,? said Carmela Aquino, marketing manager for comScore, Reston, VA.

?For some types of online content that lend themselves particularly well to connected device use, such as social networking content or navigational content, we?re likely to see shifts in the way people consume such content? she said.

?People may go on to shift a lot of their usage of maps to smartphones, and extend the amount of time they spend on this content as a result.?

Mobile drives digital traffic
The report, "Digital Omnivores: How Tablets, Smartphones and Connected Devices are Changing U.S. Digital Media Consumption Habits," analyzes how the growing penetration of smartphones and tablets is creating a group of consumers who access content through several touch points during the course of a day, or digital omnivores. As a result, advertisers and publishers should be developing cross-platform strategies to effectively engage their audiences. 

One of the takeaways for marketers is that publishers and advertisers need to account for the incremental audience they?re reaching through mobile, tablets, and other connected devices.

?Continuing to measure audience exclusively through computer use results leaves audience, and potentially ad dollars, on the table,? Ms. Aquino said.

The number of consumers consuming mobile media grew 19 percent in the past year to more than 116 million people at the end of August, according to the report.

The mobile media user population includes those who browse the mobile Web, access applications or download content.

Mobile devices are driving digital traffic with the share of non-computer traffic in the United States at 6.8 percent in August, up from 6.2 percent at the end of the previous quarter.

The share of Internet traffic coming from non-computer sources is 7.2 percent in Singapore ? the highest number worldwide ? and 6.8 percent in Britain.

Among the other findings in the report is that 64.4 percent of the non-computer U.S. traffic comes from mobile phones with vast majority ? 96 percent ? coming from smartphones.

Tablets account for 28.1 percent of the traffic.

iPads traffic surpasses iPhones
Tablets are increasingly driving traffic using mobile broadband access with nearly 10 percent of traffic from tablets occurring via a mobile network connection in August.

Tablets have traditionally required a Wi-Fi connection to access the Internet.

IPads delivered 97.2 percent of all tablet traffic in the U.S. and iPads not account for a higher share of Internet traffic than iPhones. ComScore?s research shows that iPads account for 46.8 percent of all iOS device traffic while iPhones account for 42.6 percent.

?The growth in tablet traffic ? although incremental ? was something we expected, but it was still a surprise for us to find that iPad traffic had surpassed traffic coming from iPhones,? Ms. Aquino said.

?There are only about half the number of iPads in use as there are iPhones, but iPads already drive more traffic ? in terms of browser-based page views? she said.

Tablets show growing strength as a shopping tool that can be used throughout the shopping experience from initial planning, research, price comparisons and transacting.

In the past month, 56 percent of tablet users looked up product or price information for a specific store and 54 percent read consumer ratings and reviews while on a tablet.

Other findings include that 58 percent of tablet owners consumed news on their devices with 1 in 4 consuming this content on a near daily basis via their tablets.

The iOS platform had the highest share of connected devices and smartphones in use at 43.1 percent. Android accounted for 34.1 percent of the total mobile and connected device universe.

The iOS platform also accounted for the largest share of Internet traffic, with 58.5 percent of total non-computer traffic in the U.S. Android OS ranked second, delivering 31.9 percent of overall non-computer traffic in August.

Because iOS has a significantly higher share of traffic compared to its share of devices, this suggests that iOS users are heavier-than-average consumers of Internet content.

?Marketers should understand the way their audience uses various devices complementarily to accessing content,? Ms. Aquino said. ?To create the most effective digital strategy, you need to account for your unduplicated audience and be constantly measuring your reach across the platforms your audiences are on.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York