Apple iPhone's Ease of Use Encouraging Mobile Internet Usage

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

At the Mobile World Congress (http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/) in Barcelona, members of the mobile phone industry met for a three day conference. The iPhone's appears to have already had a large effect on the mobile phone industry, with many showing off (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/technology/personaltech/14basics.html?pagewanted=2&8dpc&_r=2) iPhone clones.Apple was able to make a phone that paid equal attention to the software and the hardware. And the rest of the industry was following suit here.
EETimes notes (http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206504012) that in one conference entitled "It's the User Experience, Stupid", a blue-ribbon panel of human behavior and technology experts agreed that the iPhone represents a model for mobile operators to follow. They agreed that the existing user interfaces on mobile phones were poor compared to the iPhone and suggested that the iPhone's simply structured internet plans may also serve to encourage mobile internet usage. One ongoing hurdle to mobile internet usage has been the presence of confusing data service plans for consumers, resulting in cautious use, due to consumer fear of accumulating large service charges.

Indeed, it appears that iPhone owners are using the internet many times more than their non-iPhone counterparts. Google revealed (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/667f13de-da60-11dc-9bb9-0000779fd2ac.html) that there are 50 times more searches originating from the iPhone than any other mobile handset. The discrepancy was so great that Google initially thought it was a mistake. This finding has also been reported by O2 (http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/2007/12/26/iphone-encouraging-mobile-data-usage/) who found that 60% of U.K. iPhone users are sending or receiving more than 25 MB of data a month.

Mobile internet usage remains a growing and potentially profitable market, but has been largely untapped with existing mobile phones.

Article Link (http://www.macrumors.com/2008/02/14/apple-iphones-ease-of-use-encouraging-mobile-internet-usage/)

[Sayer]

I am more likely to send an email than an SMS since the former is unlimited and the latter is not. So, yeah, its the unlimited Internet part of the plan, stupid.

[brad.c]

Oh, Canada.

How I long for the remote Google experience.

[macduke]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

I google at least 20 times a day on my iPhone. It is a big help whenever I need more information for class, or even how to spell words correctly. This is no suprise to me!

[brad.c]

...The message that the telecommunications companies must take away from the success of the iPhone is that they should stay out of the user experience as much as possible. At the end of the day, the core competency of the wireless carriers is to deliver data (and voice) communications, efficiently, reliably and hopefully simply.

Everything else is just interference.

Exactly. Can you imagine if they telco's managed the content of the internet, not just the portal? Oh wait, they did. Back in the days when the internet sucked. (Apologies for being subjectively judgemental.)

[Popeye206]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

Mobile internet usage remains a growing and potentially profitable market, but has been largely untapped with existing mobile phones.

Potentially profitable???? It's the future!

Apple needs to start offering 3G networking (or something similar) built in to every laptop. Then cut a deal with AT&T to sell internet plans for $14.95 a month through iTunes that you can use with any of your mobile devices.

[Konstanty]

Google revealed that there are 50 times more searches originating from the iPhone than any other mobile handset.

Can Google distinguish between an iPhone and an iPod Touch?

[Stella]

Oh, Canada.

How I long for the remote Google experience.

When Rogers stops holding back the industry ( being the only GSM provider, although Telus are reportly very interested in starting its own GSM network ) and slash its data rates.

[TallManNY]

I watch my friends with iPhones use them to access the internet all the time. While I sit there with my blackberry curve sitting in my pocket. The internet is so slow and gimped on that thing that I never use it.

This goes back to something that I've said for a while. For the average user, having an apple product over other products just means you will do more with technology. To a certain extent, apple users are just living a more technologically advanced life than the non-users. iPhone users are just able to do more things than non-iPhone users. The same goes with Mac users. Take video conferencing. It is a given for Mac users now, but for PC users, including in the office, it is a rarity. Imagine everyone had Macs at our desk, we could all video conference at the drop of a hat. But since we have PCs, we are very limited and restricted in what we can do.

So a power user can do the same thing on their phones or computers, but they often don't because even for them it is a pain. Or the power user gets to watch the layperson do the same things with their apple products thereby making said power user not look so powerful.

And to think that we may only be half a year from 3G connections for the iPhone. Think how much the difference is going to be when those users have much more speed at their disposal.

[MyJelleo]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

Google revealed that there are 50 times more searches originating from the iPhone than any other mobile handset.

Can Google distinguish between an iPhone and an iPod Touch?

yes. The iPod touch doesn't use the edge network.

[decimortis]

I feel your pain, eh?

Oh, Canada.

How I long for the remote Google experience.

[sterlingindigo]

Hell yes, the iPhone is awesome and will even be better (3G, GPS, larger storage, etc.)! Hopefully unlimited data plans are here to stay without price increases.

I'm not one for texting but I certainly hop on the Internet and email quite frequently, especially in wifi areas.

Edge (for me) is actually doable in a pinch. I work on sites where timeouts are an issue and I am able to do my business without getting kicked off 98% of the time (depending on how many bars I have), so I'm happy. I'll be trading up for the 3G fo sho tho...;)

[brad.c]

When Rogers stops holding back the industry ( being the only GSM provider, although Telus are reportly very interested in starting its own GSM network ) and slash its data rates.

The 'why' is irrelevant to my angst, if it can be called angst. The 'when' is far more interesting.

Of course, 'How much' is the show stopper, which does bring us back to your point. When Apple offers 3G, we have a much better chance for competitive bidding for the almighty :apple: account.

I feel your pain, eh?

Actually, it's father down, round back, and to the right. I mean my wallet, of course. Not looking for a sympathetic reach-around. ;)

[penguy]

According to the usage stats on the phone, I've received 2.0 GB over 7 months, or nearly 300 mb/month. 25 seems pretty small! (that, or I have a problem) :D

[davidgrimm]

I am more likely to send an email than an SMS since the former is unlimited and the latter is not. So, yeah, its the unlimited Internet part of the plan, stupid.

It depends who you are trying to contact and why. Want to get a quick message to your friends on Sat evening on where to meet up, SMS works better.

I have never gotten my email successfully working on my iPhone. For a while only the junk mail got through. Its NP though, I'm only interested in sending short messages out from my phone.

[davidgrimm]

YOu didn't need a blue ribbon panel to see that most other phones' interfaces were CRAP. The mere fact that few people above the age of 14 could actually get their phones to do 1/2 of what the box said was proof enough. The iPhone is the only phone I can recall where different versions of software were provided as updates - Proof that Apple sees things differently than other phone makers.

The main difference here is Jobs. Jobs pushes his team to make the things better and easier to use. Other phone companies push out the junk and then fix it not with software, but the next model phone in 6 months...

Jobs may be an SOB, but at least hes OUR SOB...

[Abstract]

YOu didn't need a blue ribbon panel to see that most other phones' interfaces were CRAP.

You also didn't need a team, or conference, to know that a simple unlimited data + phone plan was going to encourage internet use. I don't understand my phone plans at all, especially not the data charges. I just know that the rates could be dangerously high, and I could be charged $0.50 just going on the internet (without looking for anything).


My mobile company has around 20 phone plans, and none of them have clear, easy to understand service charges. MyTime, MyTime Money, YesTime, MyCredit, MyBonus, PowerUp Money, FreeCall.........just some of the terminology I'm expected to know, but what does all of this ************ mean? They're definitely terms designed to make their rate plans unclear to the customer. Then there's the popular cap plans --- "Pay $30, get $120 + $30 worth of credit." Huh? Don't I just get $30 of credit? Doesn't my mobile provider simply overcharge me by 4 times?

Want to sort it out for me? Optus (http://personal.optus.com.au/web/ocaportal.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=Template_woRHS&FP=/personal/mobile/prepaidmobile/callingoffersandrates&site=personal) is my mobile company. Then tell me about the data charges, because I'm too stupid to understand it all.

[quigleybc]

The 'why' is irrelevant to my angst, if it can be called angst. The 'when' is far more interesting.

Of course, 'How much' is the show stopper, which does bring us back to your point. When Apple offers 3G, we have a much better chance for competitive bidding for the almighty :apple: account.



Actually, it's father down, round back, and to the right. I mean my wallet, of course. Not looking for a sympathetic reach-around. ;)



Canada pisses me off so bad when it comes to this iPhone mess. I canceled my Rogers account, and got a touch. I figure by the time the iPhone comes to Canada (thinking Fall of 08 or Summer 09) it will be at the next version. And the Touch will be obsolete.
But, bottom line getting the touch was the only thing that would satisfy me. Hacking the phone and paying a premium didn't jive with me.

at Least Vancouver is getting an apple store sometime in the next year or so... or so they say. I'm not even holding my breath on that one...:rolleyes:

[tgildred]

Potentially profitable???? It's the future!

Apple needs to start offering 3G networking (or something similar) built in to every laptop. Then cut a deal with AT&T to sell internet plans for $14.95 a month through iTunes that you can use with any of your mobile devices.


That would be sweet.

[phelix_da_kat]

The size of the screen and the ease of use of the browser helps...
I have a Pearl and will be getting an iPhone next week.

The limited size of the screen, the crappy browser, the fact that pages will NOT open properly, the low speed...

When you say do a search in google - you find it "cumbersome" to review your results as the page is NOT optimised.

And YES - the unlimited data plan does let you forget about the cost you may or may not incur.

Mant of my friends have unlocked iPhones - they just whip them out and google EVERYTHING!!

[twoodcc]

and just think when the iPhone goes 3G. then they'll really be using the internet

[shiseiryu1]

This comes as no surprise to me (an iPhone owner)... the user interface on other cell phones is horrible. When Steve Jobs said that the iPhone was years ahead of everyone else, he wasn't talking about just hardware specs. After the iPhone came out you saw a bunch of other cell phone manufacturers come out with phones with similar "features" ("Touch Screen", "Mobile Internet", "Listen to Music on your Phone", blah blah). However, it is very difficult to turn a "feature list" into something that people actually like using.

It's the same deal as Vista vs. OSX. After all of these years Vista finally copied most of OSX's "features", however I can see from experience that even after all those years (and billions of dollars later), M$ still wasn't able to make something better. Take the "page flip" feature in Vista that is a copy of the "Show All Windows" Expose feature in OSX. The Vista feature is choppy feeling and practically useless. The OSX feature is great and I use it all the time. However, although the Vista "page flip" looks better printed on the back of a box, real life experience easily shows that it sux. :)

[BongoBanger]

The iPhone scores here for two reasons:

1) It's an excellent mobile browser. Definitely the best in class.
2) The unlimited data plans. Most contracts for other phones don't offer these as standard.

Time will tell if revenue can be made here. I suspect that if data plans were capped usage would drop like a stone.

[irun5k]

I guess this explains why so many guys were quick to offer iPhone formatted versions of their sites. Even Bank of America, where I would have expected it to take years to roll out a new iPhone portal (I know, I used to work there- took forever and a thousand signatures to roll out any new tech.)

At first I was like- man... this is amazing. All these guys coming out with versions of their site for one phone from one vendor. But with these numbers, it is starting to make sense.

This is really nice for us and for the iPhone/Touch owners if you think about it. Apple doesn't need to get 90% of the market share for phones to start catering to us!

[rockosmodurnlif]

EETimes notes (http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206504012) that in one conference entitled "It's the User Experience, Stupid", a blue-ribbon panel of human behavior and technology experts agreed that the iPhone represents a model for mobile operators to follow. They agreed that the existing user interfaces on mobile phones were poor compared to the iPhone and suggested that the iPhone's simply structured internet plans may also serve to encourage mobile internet usage.
This isn't news, it's common sense.

[MacFly123]

What can you people tell me about when Apple is no longer obligated to AT&T and what they might do? I haven't kept up on it all and I heard that the contract is only 2 years exclusive. Is that true? And what happens after that? Any ideas or speculation??? What about that mandate to open the 700MHz spectrum to any device???

[Stella]

oops.

Deleted.

[i.maverick]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)



yes. The iPod touch doesn't use the edge network.


apparently their browsers are able to separate themselves too..!!
i read it in some thread at MR nly!!

[winterspan]

This comes as no surprise to me (an iPhone owner)... the user interface on other cell phones is horrible. When Steve Jobs said that the iPhone was years ahead of everyone else, he wasn't talking about just hardware specs. After the iPhone came out you saw a bunch of other cell phone manufacturers come out with phones with similar "features" ("Touch Screen", "Mobile Internet", "Listen to Music on your Phone", blah blah). However, it is very difficult to turn a "feature list" into something that people actually like using.
...


exactly.... many people think the same way, but you said it quite clearly...


The iPhone scores here for two reasons:

1) It's an excellent mobile browser. Definitely the best in class.
2) The unlimited data plans. Most contracts for other phones don't offer these as standard.
Time will tell if revenue can be made here. I suspect that if data plans were capped usage would drop like a stone.

As long as the caps aren't draconian, I don't think it would be a big deal. maybe 5GB/month or something. Now a phone modem/tethering plan or a mobile broadband laptop card plan NEED to be different since you can use much more data on a laptop. Not only because of downloading applications, video streaming, etc.. but because even at the same rated speeds, the data cards in practice have a much better throughput.
And even then, IMO, the best way to do caps (other than not have any!) is to NOT cut the person off, but to lower their bandwidth by 1/2 or something. Or they could have it progressive where your speed starts dropping off once you go over a limit.

I guess this explains why so many guys were quick to offer iPhone formatted versions of their sites. Even Bank of America, where I would have expected it to take years to roll out a new iPhone portal (I know, I used to work there- took forever and a thousand signatures to roll out any new tech.)
At first I was like- man... this is amazing. All these guys coming out with versions of their site for one phone from one vendor. But with these numbers, it is starting to make sense.

This is really nice for us and for the iPhone/Touch owners if you think about it. Apple doesn't need to get 90% of the market share for phones to start catering to us!

Yep, I think Google's website is incredible. I was planning on writing a native RSS reader until I found their online one to be everything I could wish for. and the Ajax is FAST and responsive.


apparently their browsers are able to separate themselves too..!!
i read it in some thread at MR nly!!

Well the fact that the iPhone uses EDGE and not the Touch doesn't matter at all. Google just sees an IP address and unless they know the whole block AT&T uses to connect your phone to the internet, they wouldn't be able to determine where it's coming from. Otherwise google looks at the user agent which I am not sure if it identifies if it's the touch or iPhone, but I am sure it probably does.


at Least Vancouver is getting an apple store sometime in the next year or so... or so they say. I'm not even holding my breath on that one...:rolleyes:

I was in vancouver last fall, and while I was on Robson(?) street, I got a sudden urge to go finally see the iPhone and new macs. You can imagine how COMPLETELY SHOCKED i felt when I went to google maps on my phone (Treo POS) to locate the nearest Apple store. VANCOUVER Canada with no Apple Store!!??! WHAT HORROR! Apple should be ASHAMED of itself. I demand Steve Jobs to build one there immediately!

[AidenShaw]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3B48b Safari/419.3)

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

yes. The iPod touch doesn't use the edge network.

And how would Google know which radio you were using?

[diamond.g]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3B48b Safari/419.3)



And how would Google know which radio you were using?

It doesn't. It goes by UA. You used your (or a) Touch to post that. The person you quoted used an iPhone. But I bet that was your intention wasn't it? :D

[mr.light]

When Rogers stops holding back the industry ( being the only GSM provider, although Telus are reportly very interested in starting its own GSM network ) and slash its data rates.

Competition for Rogers would be VERY welcome! Go Telus ( not that they are a whole lot better)

[BongoBanger]

As long as the caps aren't draconian, I don't think it would be a big deal. maybe 5GB/month or something. Now a phone modem/tethering plan or a mobile broadband laptop card plan NEED to be different since you can use much more data on a laptop. Not only because of downloading applications, video streaming, etc.. but because even at the same rated speeds, the data cards in practice have a much better throughput.
And even then, IMO, the best way to do caps (other than not have any!) is to NOT cut the person off, but to lower their bandwidth by 1/2 or something. Or they could have it progressive where your speed starts dropping off once you go over a limit.

Fair point. I would agree with that.

[AidenShaw]

But I bet that was your intention wasn't it? :D

Bingo! :D

All this whining and speculation, when all you really need to know is what UA string the Touch uses....

It would, however, be interesting to know how much of the Iphone traffic is Edge vs. WiFi...

[tuneman07]

I love the Iphone, I love my Ipod touch, but the one thing that makes it so much better than any other mobile device is the size of the screen, and the "normal" looking internet browser- thats really all. The internet sucked on every other phone because the screens were never big enough to see anything or support anything even resembling what the internet looks like on a PC so they all sucked horribly. I cannot wait until Nextel comes out with a similar phone (they already have but I think it is delayed for some reason). It looks to offer similar features though.

[syadasti]

Out of the box browsing experience its king as average users just use what is there (See DOJ busted MS for bundling IE).

Safari is by far the best native phone browser so it makes sense it has the most usage.

RIM still sells twice as much in the US as the overall package is better especially for power users - superior push email, third party apps out of the box, better phone, more form factors, and class leading corporate management infrastructure. But the browser sucks for non optimized content.

Any BB power user uses the free Opera Mini browser with similar scaling and zooming features of Safari and it was available about the same time the iPhone came on the market.

No flash = not "real" Internet like the commercial claims with so many sites using flash. On Windows Mobile you have several "real" Internet options while the iPhone is stuck with fake Internets probably until the SDK arrives:D

http://www.opera.com/b2b/solutions/mobile/
http://www.skyfire.com/

The creative founder of Apple [Woz] still uses a RIM Blackberry Pearl, so that is saying something (he say its a great smartphone but the native browser sucks (http://www.laptopmag.com/Features/The-Way-it-Woz-Steve-Wozniak-on-All-Things-Apple.htm?page=1)):eek:

RIM needs to launch a switch ad campaign: Switched back (http://www.blackberryforums.com/general-8300-series-discussion-curve/117775-iphone-back-bb.html) :D