Average iPhone Consumer Data Usage Pegged at Five Times That of BlackBerry
Consumer Reports announced this week the results of a study it commissioned assessing the monthly data usage for customers of Apple's iPhone and other smartphones. The data, obtained from over 1,000 consumer accounts linked to online bill analysis firm Validas, reveals that iPhone users consume an average of 273 MB of data per month, five times that of BlackBerry users and nearly twice that of users of other smartphones.
On average, iPhone users consume 273 MBs of data per month. That compares with 54 MBs for consumer users of Blackberrys and 150 MBs for consumers who use other brands of smart phones, the Validas study found.
The disparity in data usage is particularly evident at low levels, where 80% of BlackBerry and 54% of "other" smartphone users consume less than 50 MB of data per month while only less than 20% of iPhone users maintain such low usage.Consumer Reports points to the data consumption of iPhone users and the strain they have placed on AT&T's network in the United States as a possible key source of discontent that led to the carrier placing last in the magazine's recent overall and city-by-city ratings.
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30 months ago
Interesting! If you make something easy to use, the user will really use it.
My current Moto phone is so hard to use, I don't even try to use it to get on the internet.
My current Moto phone is so hard to use, I don't even try to use it to get on the internet.
30 months ago
Wow, really? More than 1GB is in the top 10%? I use about 2GB, so I'm probably in the top 5%.
Streaming internet radio, YouTube, tethering and just using a lot of internet add up quickly.
Love Canada and my $30/unlimited data plan. :D
Streaming internet radio, YouTube, tethering and just using a lot of internet add up quickly.
Love Canada and my $30/unlimited data plan. :D
30 months ago
its funny that cell networks see usage as a bad thing. **** 'em!
If AT&T saw it as a bad thing, wouldn't they have turned down the iPad instead of agreeing to be its exclusive provider? Clearly it's going to have even higher data rates than the iPhone. I'd think they'd say no to that if you were right.
Wow, really? More than 1GB is in the top 10%? I use about 2GB, so I'm probably in the top 5%.
You don't have access to ANY wifi? I hop off 3G whenever I get the chance for something faster. I imagine many others are like me, which explains those numbers.
30 months ago
I'm just amazed that all these companies keep paying money for research about how much internet the iPhone uses. It's a lot! iPhone has been winning ever since at least the 3g model. I doubt that will change in the next year. Shouldn't one report a year be enough? It just seems like every week there is a new story about how the iPhone dominates the mobile web. Seems like a lot of money wasted just to say that the iPhone is amazing.
30 months ago
Maybe it's because the iPhone is such a user-friendly device... even my 16 month old toddler can turn the iPhone on and get to the photos app... he even differentiates b/t videos, which he plays, and photos which he just scrolls through...
For a lot of non-technical people out there, iPhone apps (both built-in and 3rd party) provide typically simple user interfaces for people to do all kinds of things online... the several times I've even tried to use a Blackberry browser, I was tempted to make Blackberry jam out of the device it was so unintuitive... I'm sure that's improved a lot with the "Storm" and other devices more similar to the iPhone, but the iPhone still has so many more apps that consume bandwidth that I would expect this trend to keep up for the foreseeable future.
For a lot of non-technical people out there, iPhone apps (both built-in and 3rd party) provide typically simple user interfaces for people to do all kinds of things online... the several times I've even tried to use a Blackberry browser, I was tempted to make Blackberry jam out of the device it was so unintuitive... I'm sure that's improved a lot with the "Storm" and other devices more similar to the iPhone, but the iPhone still has so many more apps that consume bandwidth that I would expect this trend to keep up for the foreseeable future.
30 months ago
WOOHOO! I use at least double that of the average iPhone user!
:D
I typically use 500-600mb. Sometimes higher if I'm on a trip. That's why I wish the iPad's $15 plan was 500mb instead. But it isn't, so I doubt I'll get the 3g model. Plus the only reason I think my iPhone totals are that low is because I have WIFI at home, school, and work. I'm usually at one of those locations 90% of the time. I suspect this is true for other people too. Some days I turn off WIFI for whatever reason--usually because Mediacom sucks and is going 300k even though I pay for 12mbps. Then I'll switch over to 3g completely. It's so fast here on AT&T; I get 4-5mbps. So sometimes I forget to turn WIFI back on because 3g is so amazingly fast. So that will occasionally spike my amounts up to around 1gb if I leave it off for a few days.
30 months ago
The iPhone typically accesses the full version of any given web site. e.g., it is downloading the same amount of data as a user at home on a 23" iMac and 20 mbit/sec. connection viewing the same site.
(1) Do some web servers automatically redirect other mobile users to a simplified mobile page, WAP, etc?
(2) If not (1), do other mobile users intentionally access the simplified versions of sites?
(3) Are there compression technologies at play for some mobile users- e.g. , e.g. proxy server in the middle?
These statistics don't necessarily mean that iPhone users are "using" their phone for more time than a Blackberry user. I'm not saying it doesn't mean that- but we'd need to see different statistics to know for sure.
(1) Do some web servers automatically redirect other mobile users to a simplified mobile page, WAP, etc?
(2) If not (1), do other mobile users intentionally access the simplified versions of sites?
(3) Are there compression technologies at play for some mobile users- e.g. , e.g. proxy server in the middle?
These statistics don't necessarily mean that iPhone users are "using" their phone for more time than a Blackberry user. I'm not saying it doesn't mean that- but we'd need to see different statistics to know for sure.
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