iPhones Account for Spike in Wi-Fi Traffic

New data shows that iPhone owners are prolific Wi-Fi users, accounting for half of all Wi-Fi from mobile phones.

Considering that Apple now holds nearly 13 percent of the smartphone market, it should come as little surprise that iPhone users now account for a lot of traffic on the Web – but the sheer volume of browsing done with the little phones is still surprising. According to new data (PDF) from AdMob, the iPhone accounts for over half of all mobile-phone-based Wi-Fi traffic.

The company compiled data from ad requests sent to servers all over the world and determined that Wi-Fi use has not only increased overall, but that iPhone users account for a significant portion of it. Total requests from Wi-Fi networks jumped from just 3 percent in August to 8 percent in November – and the amount of that traffic that came from mobile phones also doubled in that time, from 9 percent to 19 percent.  Of that rather large piece of the pie, the lion’s share – 50.6 percent – was generated by one device: the iPhone.

Other interesting findings indicate that iPhone users are far more likely than other phone users to take advantage of their phones’ Wi-Fi capabilities. Forty-two percent of ad requests on the iPhone went through Wi-Fi connections, compared to just 10 to 20 percent on other Wi-Fi-enabled phones.