Filed under: iPhone
iPhone continues to build momentum
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
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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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jon said 6:07PM on 3-24-2009
The iPhone also has an unlimited data package - not every phone has this.
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Darren said 12:45AM on 3-25-2009
It's also hilariously disingenuous to split these numbers by phone model. You'd have to be very dense to take these numbers seriously.
Le Big Mac said 11:56AM on 3-25-2009
Yeah, for fairness/accuracy shouldn't they at least add up the blackberry numbers? Or split the iphone into 2G/3G* models?
*I'm sure it's been said, but it's really unfortunate that the 2d generation iphone uses 3G wireless. Things could have been so much easier if they had introduced another model in between.
jayjay said 7:14PM on 3-24-2009
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...
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required said 7:28PM on 3-24-2009
sshhhhh!!
Scott said 11:07PM on 3-24-2009
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!
s73v3r said 7:09PM on 3-24-2009
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.
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FightTheFuture said 9:18PM on 3-24-2009
it's becoming clear that the writing is on the wall - almost all phones have web browsing functionality but most are seldom used.
eMax said 12:43PM on 3-25-2009
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.
required said 7:11PM on 3-24-2009
Is the iPhone really considered a smart phone? I know a lot of people that don't think it is yet.
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buddhistMonkey said 7:20PM on 3-24-2009
The iPhone is in its own category: "smartest phones."
Brian Reading said 3:04PM on 3-25-2009
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?
buddhistMonkey said 7:14PM on 3-24-2009
That's an impressive chart. The iPhone generates more traffic than the next nine smartphones combined.
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buddhistMonkey said 7:17PM on 3-24-2009
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.
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ViRGE said 7:23PM on 3-24-2009
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.
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Mike said 12:57AM on 3-29-2009
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.
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Shaun said 5:41AM on 3-25-2009
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.
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neilgall said 5:57AM on 3-25-2009
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.
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Luddy said 8:49PM on 3-25-2009
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.
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