iPhone use in the epicenter of the technology world is on the rise, according to research released by Meraki Thursday.
According to the company, which is creating Free the Net, a free wireless network in San Francisco, it has witnessed a significant uptick in iPhone usage as it continues to roll out its service. Of the 150,000 devices that have used Free the Net, the iPhone accounts for nearly 20 percent. At its lowest point months ago, the iPhone accounted for just 6 percent of all the devices connecting the network.
Obviously iPhone usage in San Francisco isn’t indicative of usage elsewhere in the world and it’s tough to gauge how popular it really is in different areas, but this is even more evidence proving the iPhone may be more popular than RIM and others want to admit.
Obviously effect of iPhone 3G launch.
Wow, you’re a visionary. Tell me more.
Today in NYC the reception on AT&T network was sloppy at best. Around noon a person calling me got her call dropped at least 10 times.
iphone outages
Hard to draw any conclusions about this based on such little information. Has overall usage increased? Decreased? Are most of the 150,000 (low number to begin with) repeat users? One-time users? Are iPhones connecting automatically to the open wifi network and then disconnecting? Obviously iPhone population is growing, not shrinking, but wouldn’t read too far into this.
Given the difference in the quality of the web browsing experience on an iPhone (relatively good) and a blackberry (terrible), is bandwidth usage really even a good measure of comparative popularity of the device itself? I don’t know anyone who uses a blackberry to browse the web for more than a few minutes at a time on a few select apps. Contrast that with iPhone users who browse much more often and for longer periods of time ( I even have friends that full on blog on their iPhones). Cant do that with RIM - Using a blackberry on the web is too frustrating to be a popular with people who want the web. That said, bandwidth isn’t a true measure of total devices out there - there are plenty of people using blackberries, who are just consuming less bandwidth.
“Hard to draw any conclusions about this based on such little information. ”
No way man. The Bay Area is totally reflective of the larger world, I know because my great-great-grandma from Idaho uses Twitter all day.
LOL.
very painful. My wife tried to call me all day from out of state and got network busy messages. ATT. I hope you’re loving the new business. Now invest I’m the infrastructure. Kind of ironic that my iPhone doesn’t work for crap in the San francisco ATT building
Indeed - I had a similar moment of irony when I couldn’t do anything (call, text, e-mail) at the ATT stage at Lollapalooza.
Wow! Is Don the new Duncan?
Why did you use the word hammer?
The Cult of iPhone is alive!
Uh?
just got one its awesome
http://cashtutor.blogspot.com
Hi Don,
i think 20% seems to be a fairly common market share for internet usage for the iPhone.
The AGOF (Think ComScore for germany) just finished a test project measuring stats on mobile web pages. iPhone share was at 20,35%.
regards,
Bastian
Just out of curiosity, why would you guys buy an iPhone when there are all kinds of reports that they get bad service? Do you really need to surf the interweb on your phone? Email and stuff like that I understand, but thats what a blackberry is for.
Why use the iPhone?
Yes the service with ATT is poor in areas where you would expect things to outstanding. I spent a couple years working on some of the 3G upgrade projects for their network. General Dynamics has the bulk of the contract, and the PM’s don’t have a clue what they are doing. ATT really needs to get some better selection criteria for picking a General Contract to facilitate build-outs.
The reason I use an iPhone is simple…. Change. I like having a different interface than my VX9900 or any of the “Smart Phones” I’ve had in the past provide. The phone is quick to respond and does some degree of multi-tasking very well. This is largely dependant on the applications that you are trying to run. Some apps do not run in the background and need some code updates for this to work. The apps that do run on the phone have been hit and miss as to the value they provide. I have only purchased one application from Apple’s store that I felt warranted the $5 and that was Texas Hold’em Poker. All of the other applications work fine and some of then are quite practical for my line of work. I use Wi-Fi more than 3G for data connectivity because the speed and battery consumption are much better on the Wi-Fi. The camera is sub-par for a smart phone, but this one does result in better than average pictures for others with similar rated ccd’s. I have contemplated development for the iPhone enough that I may have to buy a Mac to try it. This is the only draw back I have seen for the development so far.