14 DAY TRIAL // A study released by business statistics group Market Share says that the internal browser of the PlayStation 3 gaming console from Sony sees more usage overall than that of the Nintendo Wii. Both consoles offer a quick and easy way to browse the Internet without using a PC or other device, yet the traffic they generate is still very small.
There are an estimated 44 million Nintendo Wiis used in the world compared to just about 19 million PS3s, yet the overall web traffic generated by the browser of the Sony machine is about four times bigger than that generated by the one integrated in the Wii. Overall, the PS3 browser has a 0.04% share of the “Internet market,” while the Nintendo browser only has 0.01%. The market is dominated by the PC, which gets a lion share of 88.7%.
The differences between the two home consoles can be explained by taking a look at the profile of the average user. The people who buy a PlayStation 3 tend to be more tech savvy and more interested in keeping up with news than those using a Nintendo Wii to quench their gaming needs. It's not clear what information is accessed by those using the browsing capabilities of the consoles. The Wii is also more social and gamers get together in order to play, which limits the amount of time that can be devoted to Internet surfing.
Still, given the effort of big manufacturers, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, to present gaming console as being multimedia centers that can be used for a variety of tasks, it seems that the use of the integrated browser is rather limited, suggesting that most users still think of the consoles as being mainly gaming machines, while relying on PCs for their Internet browsing.