3 Apps Drive Android Traffic, 4 Apps Drive iOS Traffic

Just three apps generate the majority of Android traffic, while four apps represent the majority of Apple iPhone traffic, studies by Citrix show. When it comes to the top mobile apps on Android, three apps, including Media Player, Mobile Browser and Google Play, generate 83 percent of mobile data volume on Android devices with the Media Player accounting for more than half of total traffic.

On Apple iOS  devices, 82 percent of data volume is associated with the top four apps on iOS devices, including Media Player, Safari, App Store, and Facebook. As is the case for Android, Media Player accounts for nearly half of total data volume. That appears to be a key difference between user behavior on Android and iOS devices: content consumption and app stores are key for Android, but Facebook is significant on iOS.

With one percent of data traffic and three percent of transactions, Facebook generates substantially less traffic on Android devices than on iOS devices, Citrix reports. At one percent of data traffic and three percent of transactions, Facebook accounts for less traffic on Android devices. On iOS devices. Facebook represents five percent of total data and six percent of transactions. Google Play generates 10 percent of the total mobile data volume on Android devices. This is comparable to the 11 percent associated with iTunes on iOS devices.

Mobile subscribers also are searching the web more than before, with the number of search transactions generated per subscriber increasing by 25 percent over February 2012, indicating higher levels of interaction while on-the-go.

Mobile audio, including Internet radio and audio file downloads, now constitutes 12 percent of mobile data volume in North America and four percent outside North America. Internet radio constitutes the vast majority of this volume. On either Android or iOS platforms, media and content consumption now arguably drive consumption of data.