iPhone Owners Use More Bandwidth Than Android


We often focus on the amount of data you get included with mobile phone plans, but do users of some platforms consume more data than others? A study by research firm Analysys Mason suggests the answer is “yes”, but that even those users don’t need more than 1GB a month.

Picture by Oli Scarf/Getty Images

The research, based on analysis on 1,000 users in the US and Europe, actually makes it clear that data usage falls into two categories: typical users (who probably don’t need a large data allowance) and heavy users (who certainly do). Amongst those who fall into the top 10 per cent of data usage, 80 per cent use an iPhone. That pattern is also evident amongst less heavy users: in the top 30 per cent, iPhone users outnumbered the next most common device (HTC Android phones) by a factor of three to one.

What’s more immediately useful is that even the highest-level users don’t consume truly massive amounts of data. The top-ranked users had an average consumption of 807MB of 3G data, while the median figure was 221MB a month. The lesson? Unless you’re using your phone to tether, a 1GB plan will probably be sufficient.

Analysys Mason


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