Net Applications: Apple’s iOS Web share hit 65.9% in August

September 2, 2012, 12:32 PM UTC

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FORTUNE — Although shipments of phones running Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system left Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone in the dust this summer — 68.1% to 16.9% according to IDC’s market share estimates for Q2 — that dominance is not reflected on the Web according to two leading mobile analytics services, Net Applications and StatCounter.

Net Applications, which monitors hits on its 40,000 client sites and weighs the results based on population statistics, issued a report Saturday that showed Apple’s iOS dominating the mobile Web with a record 65.94% share. Android trailed far behind at 20.93%, although its growth year over year was faster (31% to 24.3% for iOS).

StatCounter, which doesn’t count tablets as mobile devices and does not weigh its survey results as Net Applications does (“We simply publish the data as we record it,” its fact sheet boasts) showed Android retaking the lead it enjoyed briefly last summer  (see chart below). According to StatCounter’s latest survey, Android’s Web share surged to 28% in August while iOS (without the iPad) drifted down to 24.5%.

Neither method is perfect — both have their vocal critics — and adding the iPad into StatCounter’s data would shift things significantly in Apple’s favor. But why Android’s Web share isn’t higher in either survey remains a mystery.

StatCounter’s chart below: