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iPhone nabs 59% of smartphone 'net traffic, 43% of mobile web traffic


Fortune has the results of an AdMob survey up, and they're pretty surprising -- Apple has apparently taken over 59% of smartphone traffic on the Internet, and in the mobile category in general, they've got a giant 43% of 'net traffic surveyed. But there's another side here: the report doesn't just point out that Apple accounts for the lion's share of mobile 'net traffic, but it states that smartphone traffic, and specifically the iPhone in general, hugely overshadows the actual sales numbers. The iPhone has 8% global market share, but accounts for 65% of HTML traffic. And smartphones in general overshadow their sales to a lesser degree: smartphones represent about 12% of mobile device sales, but AdMob calculates them at around 35% of their traffic last month.

What does this mean? AdMob suggests it's a phase -- right now, because we're so early in the development stages of this platform, mobile web makes up the main chunk of traffic. But in the future, we may go through applications to get data, or use push notifications, and/or come up with other, more streamlined ways to get information out to mobile devices. But for now, iPhone and iPod touch users are still browsing the web, and as a result, they are accounting for way more traffic than their sales hint at.

Fortune has the results of an AdMob survey up, and they're pretty surprising -- Apple has apparently taken over 59% of smartphone traffic...
 

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ian.batterham

One other thing to take into consideration with these figures is that mobile browsing is more likely from the non-business user. Does this point to iPhone still not being fully accepted by the business community?

May 29 2009 at 3:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nick

I feel that this points to the fact that many iPhone/iPod touch users feel comfortable going to websites in full and not modified down low content versions.

May 29 2009 at 2:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kc! Bradshaw

All this means is that AT&T will start charging us more for owning and using an iPhone on their networks. :(

May 29 2009 at 12:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
aaron

I think it's also because the iPhone plans have always required you to have internet access. If people have it they will use it. When my wife and I got our smartphones from T-Mobile internet access was an option which we chose not to get.

May 29 2009 at 12:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ryan Trevisol

Just goes to show you that the iPhone DOES make it easier to use the web on your mobile device. Those other handsets sell more, but users aren't browsing with them.

The Pre is poised to take a huge share of this, however, because as we learned yesterday, the whole thing is basically a browser, so it's relying a lot more on web traffic.

May 29 2009 at 12:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Ryan Trevisol's comment
Dash21

Also, those other handsets don't necessarily come with a mandatory data plan that lets you surf the web without worrying about the cost. No one ever seems to point that out with these comparisons. Surely, that has something to do with it, too.

May 29 2009 at 12:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ryan Trevisol

Android does, and if you look at AT&T's Blackberry plans, most of them (including the BB Personal) include unlimited data.

Those are the two big ones you would expect. Lots of Symbian phones don't come with the mandatory plan, yet they are the only operating system that competes with iPhone. And they are the domain of Opera. Coincidence? No. Better browser experience equals more mobile browsing. Period.

May 29 2009 at 12:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jorge

I disagree with AdMob's suggestion that it is a phase. Having owned a number of other smartphones, I can confidently say that surfing the web is such a pain in the 'posterior' that I would not bother doing it most of the time. By comparison, surfing on the iPhone is actually quite pleasant. Also, the vast number of iPhone applications and the incredible degree of market penetration that they experience (thanks to the app store) far out-shadows the applications available for all the other mobile platforms. So if this really was a "phase" that would taper as applications became available, we would have seen it by now!

May 29 2009 at 11:40 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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