According to web analytics firm comScore, smartphones and tablets accounted for 6.8% of all web traffic in the U.S. in August.
Approximately two-thirds of that 6.8% came from mobile phones, while the remaining third came from tablet devices. The iPad dominated the latter category, accounting for 97.2% of tablet traffic.
The iPad is driving more web traffic than the iPhone, accounting for 46.8% of all traffic originating from iOS devices in August, compared to the iPhone's 42.6% share. iOS's total share of U.S. mobile web traffic in August was 58.5%.
And what are tablet owners using their devices for? Nearly 60% are accessing social networking sites and consuming news on their devices. Approximately 25% are reading news on those devices on a near-daily basis.
Shopping is also a popular pastime. In August, 56% of tablet owners looked up product or price information from a specific store, and 54% read customer ratings and reviews. Nearly half of tablet owners actually completed a purchase on the device.
comScore cites the growing availability of Wi-Fi and mobile broadband adoption as the two primary drivers of increased traffic from mobile and tablet devices in the U.S. More than a third of mobile phone traffic in August occurred over a Wi-Fi network, up 3% from the previous three months. Ninety percent of tablet browsing was done on Wi-Fi.
comScore estimates that 116 million U.S. residents use mobile media -- that is, those who browse the web, access apps or download content using mobile devices -- up nearly a fifth from the previous year.