Mobile data consumption by smartphone users

sectIoN 7:
mobile connectivity (continued)

7.4 Mobile Traffic Growth As Observed By Ericsson 7.5 Smartphone Usage As Observed by Ericsson
In mobile networks, the access medium (spectrum) is being this section investigates the impact of several different factors
shared by different users in the same cell. It is important to on weekly smartphone traffic usage. the findings presented here
understand traffic volumes and usage patterns in order to enable are based on ericsson mobile broadband measurements during the
a good customer experience. ericsson’s presence in more than second quarter of 2011 at four different operators in mature markets
180 countries and its customer base representing more than in europe, asia and North america.
1,000 networks enables ericsson to measure mobile voice and
figures 41 and 42 compare smartphone usage for the most popular
data volumes. the result is a representative base for calculating
handset models from each of these measurements. handset models
world total mobile traffic in 2g, 3g, and 4g networks (not
in figures 41 and 42 are characterized by operating system, global
including dVb-h, Wifi, and mobile Wimax).
release date (year), screen size in pixels (320x480 or smaller = small,
these measurements have been performed for several years, 480x800 or higher = large) and customer segment ($$$ = expensive
pointing at a stable trend of traffic growth with some seasonal model, lack of this mark means smartphone model & subscription
variations. however, the measurements of data and voice traffic at a price level of feature phones). (Note that iphones and android
in these networks (2g, 3g, 4g/lte) around the world show large smartphones are not specifically distinguished in the charts in order
differences in traffic levels between markets and regions, and to allow operators to remain anonymous.)
also between operators due to their different customer profiles.
figure 41 compares for each model the ratio of “active” smartphone
as illustrated in figure 40, the volume of mobile data traffic users generating more than 1 mb traffic per day on average. the
doubled from the second quarter of 2010 to the second quarter ratio of active smartphone users is the highest for new android and
of 2011, and grew 8% between the first and second quarters iphone models: 50% - 75% of subscribers are generating more than
of 2011. this comparatively smaller quarterly growth rate may 1 mb traffic per day on average. they are followed by older or inex-
be related to seasonal variations in traffic levels, as ericsson notes pensive android and iphone models and Windows mobile phones
that they have observed such variations in the past. (Note that (30% - 55%) and finally by symbian and blackberry smartphones
this quarterly growth rate is based on revised/recalculated first (only 5% - 35%). It is interesting to note the striking difference
quarter mobile data traffic figures. additionally, note that due between the ratio seen by active blackberry users in North america
to an error, the y-axis in figure 40 was previously labeled as as compared to those outside North america. (blackberry devices
exabytes – the correct metric is petabytes.) have several limitations in many countries, including app store
availability.)

400
Total (UL + DL) monthly traffic

350

300
(Petabyte/month)

Data

250

200
Voice

150

100

50

0
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2
‘07 ‘07 ‘07 ‘07 ‘08 ‘08 ‘08 ‘08 ‘09 ‘09 ‘09 ‘09 ‘10 ‘10 ‘10 ‘10 ‘11 ‘11

Figure 40: Total Monthly Mobile Voice and Data as Measured by Ericsson [Source: Ericsson]

40 © 2011 akamai technologies, Inc. all rights reserved

MB/week

0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%

0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Blackberry ‘09 mid $$$
Blackberry ‘09 mid $$$ Symbian ‘09 small $$$
Symbian ‘09 small $$$ Symbian ‘08 mid $$$

Symbian ‘08 mid $$$
Symbian ‘09 mid
iPhone/Android ‘08 small
Symbian ‘09 mid
op1 Europe


Median

op1 Europe
iPhone/Android ‘10 large

iPhone/Android ‘10 large Blackberry ‘09 mid $$$
op2 Asia



op2 Asia
iPhone/Android ‘10 large iPhone/Android ‘10 large
op3 Asia

iPhone/Android ‘09 small Symbian ‘09 mid
Blackberry ‘09 small $$$

op3 Asia

Figure 41: Ratio of active smartphone users (> 1 MB / day on average) [Source: Ericsson]
Symbian ‘09 mid
Blackberry ‘09 small $$$
Windows Mobile ‘09 large $$$

© 2011 akamai technologies, Inc. all rights reserved
Blackberry ‘09 mid $$$ iPhone/Android ‘08 small

Figure 42: Median of weekly smartphone traffic volumes for active users (>1 MB/day) [Source: Ericsson]
op4 North America

Windows Mobile ‘09 large $$$ iPhone/Android ‘10 small
op4 North America


Blackberry
5% – 35%
Symbian or

35% – 55%
50% – 75%

Android / iPhone

or cheap Android
new and expensive

old Android/iPhone

or Windows Mobile

41

sectIoN 7:
mobile connectivity (continued)

for active smartphone users who actually use their devices figure 43 further drills down into usage for one single smart-
as smartphones, the difference in median weekly traffic volume phone model (new high-end android model with large screen)
is less significant across os, price, screen size, etc. figure 42 at one specific operator and shows average weekly application
shows median weekly traffic volume (50th percentile) for active traffic for different subscriber clusters. subscriber clusters have
smartphone users generating more than 1 mb traffic per day. been created based on total per subscriber traffic volumes, e.g.,
this value varies between the 30 mb – 80 mb range for most the 95-100% cluster denotes the heaviest 5% of subscribers.
smartphone models.
application usage in different subscriber cluster differs
While the percentage of users that are active data users differs significantly per application, e.g., social networking and app
significantly by os, release date, customer segment, etc. (as store download traffic increases nearly linearly in heavier sub-
seen in figure 41), taking only active users with more than 1 scriber clusters. In contrast, online video usage can explode and
mb traffic per day on average, usage levels are very similar for can become extreme for the top 5-10% of smartphone users.
different smartphone models (as seen in figure 42). heavy users are willing to spend two orders of magnitude more
time with watching online video on their smartphones than
one notable difference is that in North america, new and
median users (~40 minutes / day on average for the heaviest
expensive smartphones with large screens generate about two
5% users as opposed to ~ 0.5 minutes / day for the median
times more traffic than smartphones at the operators analyzed
smartphone user).
in asia and europe. another notable difference is that blackber-
ry devices (especially outside North america) send a significant similar application usage characteristics can be observed
share of their traffic through a tunnel with compression. for most new high-end android and iphone models as well.

4

50 – 55%

55 – 60%
3
60 – 65%
GB / week / subscriber

65 – 70%

70 – 75%
2
75 – 80%

80 – 85%

85 – 90%
1
90 – 95%

95 – 100%

0
Social
Online Video Online Audio Web Browsing App Store Email
Networking
Figure 43: Average weekly application traffic for different subscriber clusters of a new Android smartphone model

42 © 2011 akamai technologies, Inc. all rights reserved

Mobile data consumption by smartphone users

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