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iPhone continues to build momentum

by Mel Martin Mar 24th 2009 at 6:00PM

In a new study released by AdMob, the iPhone is rolling over many of the other smart phones in the US and the world in terms of data traffic. You can download the complete study in PDF form here. Highlights of the research include:

  • Worldwide, the iPhone makes up 33% of all smart phone traffic
  • In the U.S., the iPhone accounts for 49.5 % of all tracked requests
  • Against all phones, including non-smart phones, Apple had 11.2 % of mobile online traffic. The iPod Touch was getting 6.7% and the Motorola RAZR has dropped to 2.9% of traffic
From the AdMob research, here's a look at the top ten smart phones worldwide in terms of Internet traffic.



Other items of note: the iPhone of had 10 percent of traffic in the U.S. in August of 2008, now jumping to 49.5 percent in less than a year.

AdMob notes that the traffic share is not the same as phone sales. The data reflects a combination of market share and data use. It is likely that the ease of use that Safari offers is helping to drive internet data usage, while other browsers may be painful to use and not nearly as inviting.

It's good news for Apple, and it's likely that excitement about the iPhone will increase with OS 3.0 being released this summer, along with the likely debut of new iPhone hardware.

AdMob specializes in working with advertisers to get their ads on mobile phones. They also are heavily involved in research to track trends in the mobile space.

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In a new study released by AdMob, the iPhone is rolling over many of the other smart phones in the US and the world in terms of data...
 

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Luddy

I'd like to know if that figure includes the significant amount of it's phone-less brethren in circulation. I just didn't find the phone to be attractive but I did upgrade ipod's when the touch came out. I use the ipod touch to tinker around the internet when I'm running processor heavy applications, or when I'm puttering around the house and the laptop is too much of a hastle. Plus, I can load my books in pdf format onto the itouch and carry that instead of lugging around tons of books around campus.

March 25 2009 at 8:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Neil Gall

I would take these numbers with a pinch of salt. There's no way the N70 has 7% of data traffic - I used to have one of these and the web browser is unusable.

March 25 2009 at 5:57 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Shaun Murray

There's some oddities in the data too as AdMob are including Nokia S40 phones in the 'Symbian OS' share and whilst saying the iPod Touch isn't a phone, they're including it in some of the market share stats.

On the other hand, it does show up that the US market is very, very, very odd compared to the rest of the world.

March 25 2009 at 5:36 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike

I've never been the "fanboi" type, but this is just priceless. Not a single WinMo phone to be found. I had an AT&T Tilt... I tried Opera Mobile, Opera Mini, and SkyFire, and they all *sucked* in comparison to Mobile Safari on the iPhone.

You hit it RIGHT on the head that ease of use on the iPhone drives more data traffic.

March 24 2009 at 9:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ViRGE

Isn't AdMob the supplier of ads for Cydia? It seems like there would be a gross bias in here since AdMob ads would be loaded on every app page in Cydia.

March 24 2009 at 7:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
buddhistMonkey

I read elsewhere that the iPod Touch actually came in 2nd on the list for handheld web traffic, but it wasn't included on this chart because it isn't a phone.

March 24 2009 at 7:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
buddhistMonkey

That's an impressive chart. The iPhone generates more traffic than the next nine smartphones combined.

March 24 2009 at 7:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
required

Is the iPhone really considered a smart phone? I know a lot of people that don't think it is yet.

March 24 2009 at 7:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to required's comment
buddhistMonkey

The iPhone is in its own category: "smartest phones."

March 24 2009 at 7:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brian Reading

You're kidding me right? The iPhone is the epitome of a smartphone. Maybe back at the launch in 2007 it was questionable, but by the time 2.0 rolled around, the direction had changed considerably.

What about the iPhone could anyone possibly think disqualifies it from being a smartphone?

March 25 2009 at 3:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
s73v3r

The iPhone's browser is also light years ahead of the browsers of most of the other phones on that list. I had a Blackberry Curve for a while, and the browser on that phone was terrible. Opera Mini was better, but still nowhere near as good of a browsing experience as the iPhone/iPod Touch.

March 24 2009 at 6:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to s73v3r's comment
FightTheFuture

it's becoming clear that the writing is on the wall - almost all phones have web browsing functionality but most are seldom used.

March 24 2009 at 9:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
eMax

Yes...I have a Blackberry and an iPhone. iPhone is my personal phone and the Curve is provided by work. I never do browsing on the curve simply because the iphone's experience is practically desktop class, and the curve is no where near the same.

March 25 2009 at 12:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jayjay

Interesting how they split up all the Nokia phones to make it look like apple is first at 33% while no one else comes close and number two on the list is at a measly 7%... I wonder if the iPhone at 33% includes the 2G?

I could just click the pdf link...

March 24 2009 at 6:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to jayjay's comment
required

sshhhhh!!

March 24 2009 at 7:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Scott

Ok, so adding all the Nokia phones on the top 10 list (which isn't fair by any means) gets Nokia a total of 22.6%.

What was your point again?

Interesting note: In the US, Nokia doesn't even have a single handset in the top 10!

March 24 2009 at 11:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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