back to article Apple fanbois not as data hungry as Big Phone says

When AT&T's wireless service buckles and chokes, defenders say that Big Phone's infrastructure is being overloaded by iPhone users — but a new study shows that Jobsian handheld owners' data hunger is handily eclipsed by that of users of Verizon data plans. Average monthly data dining for Verizon smartphones is 421MB, versus …

COMMENTS

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  1. Kevin 9

    Is that deliberately disingenuos?

    I thought AT&T had far more users than T-Mobile, so why play this percentages game? Sounds like an attempt to fuck with numbers to get your point across.

    1. Al Jones
      FAIL

      Huh? The article says Verizon, not T-Mobile

      And Verizon has more users than AT&T, AFAIK.

  2. Combat Wombat
    Badgers

    Gee

    Would the lower data usage have ANYTHING to do with the lower throughput speeds on the network.

    If your maximum speed is measured in kbps...then of course you are going to have a lower total data usage....

    Stupid study is stupid.

  3. Nexox Enigma

    Obvious reason!

    Maybe Verizon customers use more data because the network allows them to!

    Around here, ATT's network is congested to the point of uselessness - maybe that drives all the iPhone users to stick near a Wifi hotspot.

  4. famousringo

    Need more data

    Since the article only talks about the average amount of data consumed per user, it's possible that AT&T really is buckling under the data load if it has more users than Verizon. We need to know how many smartphone users AT&T has and compare it with how many smartphone users Verizon has before we can say which network is under more strain.

    According to linked study, 71.2% of AT&T mobile users have a data plan, while only 42.9% of Verizon users do. The average data per user (regardless of phone type) is comparable between the two networks. It's not such a stretch to imagine that with 30% higher data plan penetration, AT&T serves a lot more data than Verizon does.

  5. Jean-Luc
    Paris Hilton

    (pedantry warning)

    Errr.... Given:

    "For example, around 54 per cent of Verizon smartphones and 52 per cent of iPhones use less than 200MB per month"

    ... wouldn't the following be obvious?

    ", but 46 per cent of Verizon smartphones and 48 per cent of iPhones use use more than 200MB per month."

    Paris, cuz she's confused. And because we still don't have an Anna Chapman icon, dammit.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      On the subject of redundancy

      "faked a fake"

    2. ratfox

      Dogbert

      "My market research indicates that 50% of your customers are above the median age. But the shocking discovery was that 50% were below the median age."

      This could be one for the tautology club...

  6. Daniel B.
    Boffin

    Why exclude the Berries?

    Even with RIM's compression stuff going on, these numbers might mean something if they are equal or higher than the iPhone data usage. Because it would mean that the berries are actually sucking *more* data than the uncompressed iPhone data usage!

    According to my berry, I've eaten through 287 Mb in the last 3 weeks, so that places me above the 200 Mb mark that iPhone users have.

    1. Peter H. Coffin

      Very Berry, quite contrary...

      Google Sync updating my *calendar* eats 5 MB a month. I can't imagine that the amount of use I put on this thing could be under 2-3 GB per month.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I think I can explain...

    You see, while the iPhone users are off having sex, mr android user is busy trolling the forums of the Internet telling anyone and no one how his phone is actually much much better as it can load a certain type of webpage running a certain version of java engine 0.0000001 seconds faster and how adopt hitler/jobs is the devil as he won't allow an app that allows the user to find his lost retainer!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Grenade

      Re: I think I can explain...

      Having read many of the comments sections on TheReg, it would appear tha the opposite is true...

      Or are you suggesting that sex with an iPhone present isn't masturbation?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        RE: Re: I think I can explain...

        "Having read many of the comments sections on TheReg"

        ...and you believe everything that is spewed by the idiots that post on here, do you?

      2. Doug Glass
        Go

        It's ...

        ... flagellation, not masturbation. As with the ancient use of the cilice, it's use is to torture oneself to please your master and cleanse your soul.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Jobs Horns

      You forget

      The iPhone can't do Flash.

      People using Android, Symbian and (most) WinMo kits can view Flash.

      So while the iPhone users are off having sex, the other users are having fun with online flash games.

      Devil Jobs. Because he should've realized that Flash would rake AT&T (and thus him) more money.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    What about me?

    Where does my 32GB/month fall on the usage curve?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My stats

    In Canada & using an Android 2.2 phone: According to my 3G monitoring app, I am currently using around 350MB per month. Network performance is also okay with no dropped signals:

    3G data- 3347kbps download and 1302kbps upload

    WiFi (cable broadband @ home)- 7484kbps download and 559 kbps upload

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Assumptions...

    "Verizon Wireless smartphone users are consuming 500 megabytes to 1 gigabyte per month compared to AT&T iPhone users."

    Assuming no difference in the Phone users, leaves one answer: Ability to access Data, this could be from one of Two Causes AT&T has shite reception on its network OR the phones on AT&T have Shite Reception.

    Dear AT&T Mr Jobs says reception is just dandy, so Fix your fuxing network!

  11. dave 81
    FAIL

    Combat Wombat is correct

    Of course there will be less data usage on a crappy network.

    Its the symptom of a crap network.... and the symptom of a good network will of course be an increase in data usage.

    This study proves Nothing except for the old Churchhillian adage "lies, damned lies and statistics!"

  12. Tom 13

    Another consideration is tethering,

    since Apple doesn't allow it that would have an affect as well. I'd expect it to see more tethering usage with power users, hence even larger data consumption for the companies that allow it.

  13. David McMahon
    Jobs Horns

    Not using expected data??

    Just wait until they get their cases!

  14. Sly
    Coat

    "the "typical user" is a mythical beast..."

    having one distinct test... right... coat in hand...

  15. Doug Glass
    Go

    Only because ...

    ... the fanbois are too concerned with cosmetic fluff to be bothered with anything of real substance. Should tell you something about their idol, The Sacred J.

  16. Eduard Coli
    Megaphone

    Flond

    The difference could be attributed to the spies on the wire but that would be a state secret ( and they would have to kill you if they told you).

  17. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    Not an excuse for AT&T

    @famousringo, Verizon has more customers than Apple.

    Two big factors here --

    1) Since Qualcomm basically owns CDMA tech, they tried to reduce costs as much as possible for CDMA operators. For GSM in the US, companies first ran a TDMA and a GSM network in parallel, eventually shutting down TDMA (around 2009), and now they are basically having to divide spectrum between GSM and UMTS. For CDMA, the early phones supported both CDMA and analog so carriers could upgrade at their leisure; later on, the CDMA to 1X upgrade (14.4kbps data to 144kbps data) was relatively painless. EVDO is almost a seperate network, but since the channels are 1.25mhz wide (instead of 5mhz for UMTS) it was easier to clear out some spectrum. So, Verizon's costs for the same level of service were lower than AT&T's.

    2) AT&T has cheaped out -- Verizon has spent at least $5 billilon a year since 2000 on network upgrades, and recently it's higher. AT&T was spending much less.. they've recently increased their spending but I don't know if it's higher than Verizon's now or not.

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