iPhone 3G dominates mobile data in Australia

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 23 September 2008 12:40

Your IT - Mobility

For example, UK carrier O2 reported "unheard-of levels of mobile Internet usage" among iPhone users.

However, AT&T has disclosed that while iPhone 3G data consumption is relatively high compared with that on other handsets, it wasn't as high as expected in comparison the first-generation iPhone's EDGE data usage.

AT&T expected iPhone traffic to go up fivefold, but it 'only' tripled.

There's no official explanation, but the poor performance reported by a substantial number of users seems likely to be a factor. If you can't get a connection, or only one that is impossibly slow, you won't use much data.

So what has the Australian survey found?

Carried out by mobile web analytics firm Amethon, the study examined more than 100 million page views.

It found that the average iPhone browsing session involved 2.07M, compared with 0.3M for average mobile sessions. At least part of that seems to be due to the average iPhone page size being more than twice the mobile average.

Why might that be? Amethon's answer is on page four.