IPhone Showing High Wi-Fi Usage Rates in the USA and UK

Mobile advertising agency, AdMob has highlighted growing Wi-Fi usage in the US and the UK in its November Metrics Report. Worldwide iPhone requests grew 52 percent month over month to 359 million in November, giving the iPhone 6.3 percent of total requests. In the US the iPhone is now the top device with 9.9 percent of requests.

The iPhone has by far the most WiFi usage, with 42 percent of US requests coming in over Wi-Fi instead of a mobile operator network. The inclusion of Wi-Fi on popular new smartphones such as the G1 and BlackBerry Bold indicates WiFi usage will continue to grow in the coming months. Wi-Fi only devices such as the iPod Touch and Sony PlayStation Portable also generated significant traffic.

Other highlights from the November 2008 report:

• In the US, 8 percent of total requests in November were on Wi-Fi networks, up from 3 percent in August. 42 percent of iPhone requests are made from Wi-Fi, notably higher than most other Wi-Fi capable phones which average between 10-20 percent. iPhone Wi-Fi usage is generally higher on iPhone specific sites and applications than on normal mobile sites.
• In the UK, 8 percent of requests in November were on Wi-Fi networks, up from 4 percent in August. After the iPhone and iPod Touch, the Nokia N95 and other N series phones are the leading Wi-Fi devices.
• Worldwide requests were flat in November at 5.8 billion. Requests from North America, Western Europe, Latin America, and Eastern Europe each increased more than 10 percent month over month. These increases were offset by a decline in Indonesian inventory.
• The G1 (HTC Dream) generated 15 million requests in November and already represents 7 percent of all T-Mobile traffic. Android had a 2 percent share of smartphone operating system traffic in the US.

The full November 2008 report with additional data and all previous reports are available for free download at: http://www.admob.com/metrics.

Posted to the site on 18th December 2008