iPhone 3G dominates mobile data in Australia

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 23 September 2008 11:40

Your IT - Mobility

As commentators in some other countries have suggested, Amethon suspects that initial high levels of data use by iPhone customers reflect an initial fascination that will soon wear off.

"Proud new iPhone owners are very likely to be surprised by incredibly high data usage, because of the quantity of data consumed with their heavy web browsing. Our belief is that many will adjust their browsing habits as the novelty wears off and some may upgrade their current plan to allow them more data usage," said Amethon CTO James Cleary.

And there's the rub: Amethon's figures are derived from web analytics on "several hundred mobile and conventional websites." Without including non-web traffic, or traffic associated with iPhone-specific sites that aren't on Amethon's panel, they're not especially meaningful for users.

While the study is useful for site operators and designers - it seems the best way to cater for the iPhone may be to avoid forcing a mobile version of your site onto them - it doesn't address the wider picture of iPhone data use.

Remember, Australian iPhone users are charged (or at least metered) for every kilobyte that's sent or received. So that acts as a disincentive to casual web browsing, as well as using other applications (including email) that involve data traffic.

Some carriers provide such puny quotas that we've heard from users who want to turn off 3G/GSM data completely to avoid any 'accidental' use of wireless data. Most of the time they rely on Wi-Fi (at home or in the office, or at hotspots associated with their carrier), and only activate wireless data when they absolutely must use it.

It's a shame that Australian iPhone plans fall back on excess data charges instead of speed limiting. The psychology seems much better in the latter case, where instead of giving you a spanking for using too much data, the carrier says, "it's OK, we understand, here's a drip-feed to tide you over." Which would make you feel more inclined to sign up for a bigger monthly allowance, and which would make you look around for an alternative as soon as you were out of contract?