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Apple devices dominate airport Wi-Fi

by Steven Sande Sep 21st 2011 at 11:30AM

Anyone who has spent time around an airport recently has probably noticed that Apple devices -- particularly the iPhone and iPad -- seem to be everywhere. Ina Fried at the Wall Street Journal reports that Wi-Fi hotspot provider Boingo has the stats to prove that Apple devices are now dominating mobile device Wi-Fi connections at airports.

The figures from June, 2011 show that the iPhone makes up 42.1 percent of the mobile device connections to Boingo's airport hotspots, while the iPad is second at 23.5 percent. Don't count out the iPod touch -- it's the third most popular device at 17.5 percent. For mobile devices, that means that Apple products make up a whopping 83.1 percent of all of the connections to Boingo's hotspots. Android? It's taking a very small back seat to iOS at 11.5 percent.

Fried notes that the figures reflect a trend that inflight Wi-Fi provider Gogo has also noticed. In a recent report, Gogo said that the iPad (a device that didn't even exist two years ago) now accounts for one-third of all inflight Wi-Fi connections, with Macs near 20 percent and Windows PCs leading at about 41 percent.

Boingo states that mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad have come to dominate the connections at airports, accounting for 60 percent of total traffic with the other 40 percent coming from traditional laptops.



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MarketingXD

This looks like another case of iOS useage being over-estimated, due to the behaviour of its email client. When you are at an airport and check your email using iOS, images are enabled by default and get loaded. This is unlike e.g. GMail on Android, or Outlook on your laptop. This creates a lot of additional connections and data volume on the boingo Wifi, but there is no extra real use. See:

http://blog.marketingxd.com/post/10551622231/have-mobile-devices-overtaken-laptops-at-airports

September 23 2011 at 7:09 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
emil

Who are these idiots paying for Boingo wifi on an iPhone when they are already paying for a cellular data plan?

September 21 2011 at 1:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to emil's comment
Anders

People traveling outside their own country...

September 22 2011 at 1:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Shawon

Thanks for your information.Actully popularity of apple i pad increase day by day.So its proceesing complex for airport.

September 21 2011 at 12:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rich

IMO, it's because thethering has been on android for much longer and it's free.

September 21 2011 at 12:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Rich's comment
Rich

Paying for wifi is for chumps ;)

September 21 2011 at 12:06 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
gk00000000091799

i thought the carriers cracked down on free tethering.

September 21 2011 at 12:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to gk00000000091799's comment
Rich

t-mo and sprint still have free and is still free on att or verizon as long as you have an unlimited plan.

September 21 2011 at 12:45 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down
Rich

nor could they stop you on an android device (at least not for long until someone makes a new app)

September 21 2011 at 12:45 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down
m

An anecdotal observation from a trip last weekend: I saw many more people using Apple laptops than other PC laptops. Two of the airports had free wifi, so this would not have shown up on the Boingo survey even if they were also measuring laptop connections--but it astounded me. I thought I might be just noticing the Macs, but when I looked for other PCs, they simply weren't in view.

September 21 2011 at 12:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
sevenfeet

There is another point that this story is missing. Although the number of Android devices used at airports is increasing, they should be a higher percentage. Some of it could be explained for 4G networks on some phones but there aren't enough of those devices yet to figure in prominently. I think the real reason goes back to app store experiences with the user bases. iOS users are used to paying for services, hence their behavior in the App Store and airport WiFi is almost always a paid experience for the traveler. Android users are probably deciding to get back othe 3G/4G network available.

September 21 2011 at 11:53 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jerry DeMelo Jr

This simply amazes me!

September 21 2011 at 11:36 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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