Samsung claims fourth through sixth places in Actix's
measurements of American
and European users. Also: bigger screens and newer
phones mean more data use.
(Credit: data from Actix/chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET)
What were the top three most used phones in 2013? The iPhone
4S, the iPhone 5, and the iPhone 4, according to an Actix study that tracked communications
between mobile devices and carriers' mobile networks.
But Samsung is the clear rival: its Galaxy S3, S2, and S4
claimed the fourth, fifth, and sixth places, respectively, according to figures
that Actix, which sells software to track such usage, shared with CNET. Samsung
also had a significant presence in the rankings with a handful of lower-end
models such as the Galaxy S3 Mini and Galaxy Ace.
The ranking is based on the the number of people who used
the phones during several one-hour monitoring periods during the year in North
America and Europe.
The iPhone 4S had
an average of 20,608 users per hour compared to 20,529 for theiPhone 5, 17,880 for the iPhone 4,
7,973 for the Galaxy S3, 4,603 for the Galaxy S2, and 3,118 for the Galaxy S4.
Actix picked busy
times in busy places for its measurements, but it used the same sampling from
one period to the next. The figures are based on average hourly usage data
collected over the course of 2013, so newer phones such as the iPhone 5S and
iPhone 5C, which haven't had as much time to penetrate the market, rank lower.
Although market-share statistics consistently show Android
phones outselling iOS phones, network operators and programmers have to deal
with a different reality: the number of different phones actually in use. The
Actix data shows that for the European and North American markets at least, the
iPhone holds a strongly prominent position.
Across all of 2013, the iPhone 5's hourly usage was by far
the biggest burden on carrier networks, when factoring in both the number of
users and the amount of usage. Click to enlarge.
(Credit: data from Actix/chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET)
Troublemakers for carriers
Viewed from a carrier perspective, the data reveals which phones are taxing the
network the most -- not just by tallying subscribers but also revealing how
usage patterns vary from one phone to the next. Actix's statistics show how
phones differ in data consumption and in the number of "sessions" --
how often they check into the network to handle calls and data transmission.
Those differences can be interesting. For example:
• Newer phones have a much higher appetite for data. That
could be because they use newer, faster networks such as LTE, because they tend
to come with higher-resolution screens, and because people use them more and
run more apps on them.
• On a per-person basis, Apple phones from a given year
consume more data than Samsung's flagship Android phone released the same year.
• Although BlackBerry phones rate relatively high in terms
of total users, they consume almost no data compared with Android or iPhone
models.
• Big-screen phones download a lot more data -- perhaps
because of higher-resolution images and video. However, their relative scarcity
means they aren't as much of a burden on networks as high-end smaller phones.
• As manufacturers such as Apple broaden their product lines
with more family members, it's rarer for a single model to rank highly in
network usage. The iPad 2, for example, is in the top-25 list from Actix, but
no other iPad is. (The third-generation iPad was replaced by the fourth-gen
model only a few months later.)
Judged by device, the iPad 2 sucked the most data per hour
off carrier networks.
Among phones, though, the iPhone 5 was tops. The data
reflects real-world usage for the full 2013 calendar year, so newer phones
don't rank as highly as those that were used year round. Click to enlarge.
(Credit: data from Actix/chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET)
Mobile network traffic rocketing
Actix pinned down just how much total data consumption is rising. "Growth
was low initially but is now 40 percent year on year, so we are seeing
increased growth in a shorter time and no signs of slowing," the company
said.
The usage data only is for 2G, 3G and 4G mobile networks. It
excludes Wi-Fi connections common at home, work, and other places people
regularly use their mobile devices.
Actix said the company doesn't have enough data yet to say
anything conclusive about Apple's current flagship iPhone 5S. "Initial
data suggests it will track similar to previous iPhones," the company
said.
For sessions -- the often-brief network connections phones
establish for calls and data transfer -- the iPhone models also led the pack.
Carriers had to grapple with about 1.11 million iPhone 4S
sessions each hour compared with about 1.08 million for the iPhone 5, 832,000
for the iPhone 4, 360,000 for the Galaxy S3, 382,000 for the Galaxy S2, 130,000
for the iPhone 3GS, 129,000 for the HTC One X, 104,000 for the BlackBerry 9900,
and 100,000 for the Galaxy S4.
The number of sessions per hour, averaged across several
different hours during 2013 in different locations, show iPhones are the most
actively used smartphones on mobile networks. Click to enlarge.
(Credit: data from Actix/chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET)
New phones demand more data
Breaking down the data by individual use shows the increasing data appetite by
phone. On average, each iPhone 3GS user consumed 2.1MB per hour, an iPhone 4
user 4.5MB per hour, an iPhone 4S user 6.4MB, and an iPhone 5 user 8.8MB. Those
phones were released in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012, respectively.
Newer Samsung phones also consume more data, but the
increase is a step behind Apple models, according to the Actix figures. Galaxy
S users consumed 2.79MB per hour compared to 3.9MB for the Galaxy S2, 5.5MB for
the Galaxy S3, and 6.6MB for the Galaxy S4. Those phones were released in 2010,
2011, 2012, and 2013, respectively.
Judged purely on the basis of megabytes consumed, big-screen
devices like phablets and tablets have a larger appetite for data.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 2 consumed an average of 8.4MB per
hour, though it ranked 17th in terms of network-connection sessions. The HTC
One X, in 18th place, consumed 5.4MB per hour. And the iPad 2, in 20th place,
consumed a whopping 15.4MB per hour.
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