Mobile Data Analytics firm Arieso's newly released reports offers
interesting insights into the distribution of mobile data consumption
across mobile users.
Its most important revelation: The top 1
percent of mobile users account for half of the traffic generated on
mobile networks and that number jumps to 90% if you take into account
the top 10%.
Other findings include:
- iPhone 4S users consume twice as much data as iPhone 4 users.
- The breakdown of the top 1 percent data consumers - 64 percent laptop, 33 percent smartphone and 3 percent iPad.
The company's study treats the average data usage by an iPhone 3G to be the benchmark.
The iPhone 4S, as you see in the chart, comes right behind 3G modems in terms of data usage. While Siri is to partially blame for the increased usage, there are a number of other factors, as ZDNet outlines:
- New toy syndrome - People buy a new toy, they want to play with it.
- Faster - The 4S is faster than then older handsets thanks to the A5 dual-core CPU. Faster means people get more done. Getting more done when out of WiFi and in 3G coverage means more data usage.
- Better antenna - More 3G in more places.
- Higher megapixel camera - more megapixels means that any images sent over 3G will consume more data than the lower-resolution images from the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.
The use case of 3G modems and the iPhone
4S varies greatly with one catering laptop users, while the other being
a mobile device. The usage pattern from the chart above agrees to this.
(more on this at Fortune)
Also worthy to note: The Galaxy S2, one
of the best Android phones out there, was nowhere in the top data
consumers. For comparison sake, the Galaxy S2 went for sale in the
European market (where the study was conducted) six months ago, while
the iPhone 4S - just three months ago. (Perhaps the Galaxy S2 injunction is to blame.)
The iPhone 4S standing ahead of its Android counterparts is however in contrast with what Sprint CEO Dan Hesse had said, after Sprint announced that it would carry the iPhone:
"One of the beauties of carrying the iPhone is it extends the period of time and increases the likelihood of us maintaining unlimited data longer because it uses our network so efficiently."
Maybe that's why Sprint's "truly unlimited" data plans have conditions attached.
Another interesting tidbit from the
report: iPad was the only tablet to make it to the top 1 percent. Maybe
it's because a portion of Android tablets still run pre-honeycomb
software, or that other tablets aren't selling, or that there is a
severe shortage of apps on non-iPad tablets, or a combination of all the
three. Whatever the reason be, it's pretty impressive that this device
didn't exist two years ago. And not all models of the iPad were a part
of the study, only the ones equipped with a 3G radio.
Data consumed by the iPad, and tablets
in general, would certainly increase with time and it'll be interesting
to see how cellular networks cope with this increasing demand.
As Arieso's report concludes, improving mobile data network infrastructure is as important to carriers, as Retina displays (and flash memory earlier) are to Apple.
(For what it's worth, the report is based on data usage of 1.1 million European users over a period of 24 hours.)
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