Apple Might Not Own Online Video, But It Owns The Devices Playing It

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Here’s the bad news: Apple only owns 10% of all video sales, handily beaten by the likes of YouTube, Amazon and Netflix. The good news? If someone’s watching online video, chances are they’re doing it on an iPhone, iPad or Apple TV.

Although YouTube had 69.2 percent of the online video market, the website has yet to succeed in commercializing the service, says Citi’s Mark Mahaney who surveyed an unknown number of web users last week. As a result, many YouTube videos are watched via Apple devices.

For some time, video has been viewed as Apple’s next breakout area, to the point where the tech giant invested $1 billion in a North Carolina site for streaming iTunes data, including video.

More interesting data from the survey for Apple fans includes that iTunes is the only provider who has commercialized online video, except for Netflix, which ranks third with a 24.5 percent marketshare. YouTube, Facebook (a surprising entry) and Hulu mainly provide free video. Although Hulu offers commercial Hulu Plus accounts, the majority of the site’s visitors are free subscribers, reports say.

Earlier this year, iTunes was ranked No. 3 in the U.S. for video subscriptions, tying with entertainment giant Time Warner and satellite provider DirecTV.

How much of your online video experience is provided by Apple? Which Apple devices do you watch online video on, and do you ever buy or rent videos from iTunes? Let us know!

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