KEY POINTS:
An Australian survey of iPhone use has found that the average iPhone browsing session involved 2.07M, compared with 0.3M for average mobile sessions. At least part of that seems to be due to the average iPhone page size being more than twice the mobile average.
Carried out by mobile web analytics firm Amethon, the study, reported by ITWire, examined more than 100 million page views.
Amethon thinks this is due to iPhone users going to 'full' sites rather than the cut-down mobile versions.
The reduced data transfers and correspondingly quicker page loads of movile versions of sites would seem attractive, but it seems that hasn't been enough to offset the satisfaction gained from using the primary site.
This extends to search behaviour, with iPhone users found to be many times more likely to use desktop versions of web search engines than the average mobile user predominantly using mobile versions (97 per cent versus 43.6 per cent for mobile, according to Amethon officials.
It's pretty clear that most iPhone searching is done via the regular version of Google. Google takes 97 per cent of iPhone searches, compared with 95.5 per cent of overall mobile searches.
iPhone web 'session' are longer, too - 2.8 minutes for iPhone users versus 1.6 minutes for mobile users, and 2.4 minutes for desktop users.
Amethon suggests this is the result of reading more pages - the average page views per visit were said to be 73 per cent higher for iPhones than other mobile devices. But relatively slow page loading on iPhones (maybe due to the use of those full sites!) may also be a factor.
Amethon suspects that initial high levels of data use by iPhone customers reflect an initial fascination that will soon wear off, a possibility commentators in some other countries have also suggested,
Amethon's figures are derived from web analytics on 'several hundred mobile and conventional websites.' Without including non-web traffic, or traffic associated with iPhone-specific sites that aren't on Amethon's panel, the analytics are not especially meaningful for users.
But the study is useful for site operators and designers - perhaps the best way to cater for iPhone users may be to avoid forcing mobile versions of your site onto them, as it doesn't address the wider picture of iPhone data use.
Australian iPhone users are charged (or at least metered) for every kilobyte that's sent or received. This acts as a disincentive to casual web browsing, as well as using other applications (including email) that involve data traffic.
Some Australian carriers provide quotas so puny, some Aussie users want to turn off 3G/GSM data completely to avoid any 'accidental' use of wireless data. It definitely pays to rely on Wi-Fi at home, office, or at hotspots and only activate 3G wireless data when you absolutely must use it.
On my own iPhone, I received 507KB and sent 118KB over three days, but last month I hit my data limit (250MB), almost, in the first two weeks of iPhone use. You can check out these plans at Vodafone NZ.
If you buy your Apps on your Mac and download them to the iPhone when you sync you will save a lot of bandwidth. I have an iCal reminder set to tell me every month to reset the usage figures on my iPhone when my monthly plan ticks over, so I can keep track. To discover your own usage, open Settings, touch General, press on Usage.
SMS texts are a little harder to keep track of - I only get a paltry 100. You just txt BAL to 777 (I have 83 left - and three and a half weeks to go. Yikes.)
I have asked for NZ iPhone data usage figures from Vodafone NZ, and will add them here as a comment if they surface.
Meanwhile, all around the world, of course, people are using millions of iPhones. Nick Spohn is getting people to email him with the city and country they're using their iPhones in - Nick's site is simply a Google map with placements.
You just email Nick from the email address on the site with the type of phone you have (ie 16GB) and city and country, and how many bars of reception you regularly experience (I seem to mostly get 4-5 in Grey Lynn and the CBD). Nick won't add your address so you don't need to provide it. It's worldwide though, so go and put yourself on the map.
Wired magazine has the results of an iphone cell reception survey presented in map form, too. The site shows areas of cell phone reception and data strengths, and areas of weakness. Overall, 2636 iPhone 3G owners participated in a usable way in the Wired study, with a fair number from Australia.
Meanwhile, AppleInsider reckons a 32GB iPhone is coming with 'home activation' instead of all that mucking about at the phone dealer.
