Apple’s AirPlay dominates screen sharing report, but few actually use it

Apple's AirPlay is leading in mind share when it comes to screen sharing technologies, according to a newly published report from market research firm NPD. The firm surveyed 2,600 tablet and smartphone owners throughout the first quarter of 2013, finding that more than 20 percent of those users were aware of AirPlay and what it does. That's compared to less than 15 percent awareness for similar technologies like Samsung's AllShare and Xbox SmartGlass.

If you think those numbers are low, though, just wait until you hear the actual usage numbers. NPD's data shows that only seven percent of all tablet and smartphone owners actually use some kind of screen sharing technology. Only three percent said they use AirPlay in particular. So although Apple has a strong lead when it comes to customers being aware of AirPlay's existence, mirroring content from your phone or tablet to something like a TV is an activity that only a minuscule percentage of the population seems to do.

NPD's reasoning for the relatively low numbers is just that screen sharing is new-ish. "Screen sharing solutions are somewhat new, many only launched in 2012, so we don’t expect a lot of consumers to be using the technology yet,” NPD Director of Devices John Buffone said in a statement. "The awareness number is a positive indicator and will help build the foundation to engage more consumers with second screen experiences."

Technically, AirPlay was first "introduced" in 2011 when Apple rolled out iOS 5, but parts of it existed previously as AirTunes, which was first introduced to Macs in 2004. AirTunes allowed users to stream music from their Macs to compatible devices; AirPlay improved on that by adding the feature to iOS devices and adding video so that users could stream all manner of content to their Apple TVs. One would expect mind share for AirPlay—at least among Mac users—to be much higher given its history, but plenty of today's iOS users are new to Apple and may not own an Apple TV to AirPlay to. (Then again, there are projects that allow you to send AirPlay streams to other devices, such as the Raspberry Pi.)

Whatever the case, when it comes to the kind of content users are sharing to the big screen, NPD's results are predictable. More than three-quarters of those who actually use screen sharing tech are streaming video, while slightly more than half use it to share photos. Only about 20 percent reported screen sharing video games—a number that could impact long-standing rumors about Apple's plans for a new video game console.