Mobile Devices

January 16, 2013

Data Usage in Europe Highest for iPhone 5 Owners

After conducting a study on 125 devices, which included cell phones, smartphones and tablets, mobile data usage analysis company, Arieso, concluded that networks are kept busy mostly by iPhone 5 users, who download 50 percent more data than iPhone 4S users on average, and over four times more data than iPhone 3G users.

Tests included more than one million smartphone users over a one day period, and were made with the help of a "tier-one" European mobile carrier, whose name was not disclosed.

A recent report by Reuters states that, "Users of Apple's iPhone 5, launched in September 2012, have the most voracious appetite for data in Europe[...]"

Users of the HTX Sensation XL came in second in data consumption, and Samsung Galaxy S3 users came in third, both with three times more data used than the users of the iPhone 3G. Last year's top consumer of data was iPhone 5's predecessor, the iPhone 4S, whose users were consuming three times more data than iPhone 3G users, and two times more than iPhone 4 users.

As smartphone users become more knowledgeable in mobile technology, they want to use their devices to their full capability, which will increase data usage. The new iPhone's larger display also makes room for more applications, encouraging the use of even more data.

iPhone 5 users come in third for uploads in Arieso's test results, after Samsung's Galaxy S3's users in first place, and the users of Samsung's Galaxy Note 2 "phablet" in second. The test revealed that Samsung Galaxy S3 users upload close to four times more photos, videos and other files than iPhone 3G users.

Data usage for uploads to social networking websites, such as Facebook or Instagram, which was one-seventh the amount of data downloaded a year ago, has now increased to one-sixth.

What came as a surprise was that data usage for smartphones surpassed data usage for tablets for the first time ever. Of the top 10 devices that were tested, six were smartphones and three were tablets.

Tablets only ranked fourth, eighth and ninth for downloads.




Edited by Braden Becker


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