Apple, King of Wi-Fi

[Jeff Campbell]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/08/31/iphone.mac.lead.hotspots/' target='_blank'>http://www.electronista.com/article....lead.hotspots/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Regardless of its actual market share, Apple all but commands use at Wi-Fi hotspots in cafes and coffee shops in the US, according to new data from JiWire."</em></p><p><em><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1251743472.usr105634.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></em></p><p>According to the <a href="http://www.jiwire.com/" target="_blank">study</a>, the iPod Touch and iPhone combined to account for 97.6% of all handheld usage in Wi-Fi hotspots, while the Mac use is right at 25% of all notebook usage. They also note some interesting stats about Wi-Fi, such as the US leading in the number of hotspots with 67,420 versus the UK which has 27,459. They also compared cities in the US, and found New York in the lead with 887 hotspots versus the number two San Francisco with 872.&nbsp;</p>

[doogald]

Holy moly, 98% of mobile handsets! Even 25% of laptops is amazing, given the supposed 8% market share. Perhaps the market share for laptops (which I rarely see broken down, actually) is pretty high?

[Sven Johannsen]

Interesting that they would specify cafe's and coffee shops. Does that mean it doesn't include airports, book stores, community provided, some airlines, etc.? Are we talking just free ones, or just cafe'/coffee shops regardless of free or pay?

I can certainly see cafe's and coffee shops attracting more Apple leaning folks than airports which would have a higher percentage of business travelers, which may lean towards windows platforms, or Palm mobiles. No, I didn't say iPhone users don't travel or work. I just expect less iPhones to be used at the airport where you pay for AT&T WiFi, than at Starbucks, where it is free, for iPhone users, but costs for others.

[Macguy59]

I also wonder if AT&T's woeful 3G coverage plays a part in that.

[jdmichal]

Not only AT&T's 3G coverage, but also the functionality that is limited to WiFi and not the cellular network. Personally, I wouldn't bother burning battery power on WiFi unless it offered something other than possibly increased speeds.

[David Tucker]

The laptop numbers are impressive but I think a reasonable explanation for the handheld #s is that AT&T gives all of their data plans free WiFi at AT&T hotspots. Combine that with Starbucks being an AT&T hotspot provider and the numbers make sense.

I certainly wouldn't usually pay for the WiFi but if it was free I'd take advantage!

[doogald]

If you actually read the study, you'll see that the majority of WiFi use is at hotels and resorts - 55.3% - while the second highest is at airports, 27%. 10% is at cafes. And 74% of laptop use at cafes is Windows, not Mac.

This is not just an iPhone phenomenon using AT&T for free at Starbies, that's for sure. (Another datum - iPod Touch, which does not get free WiFi at Starbies, is 43% of WiFi requests.)

[Sven Johannsen]

OK, I didn't notice the link, that lead to the link, that lead to the report. A report put out by an ad company to highlight the amount of ads being accessed by folks at WiFi hotspots. It is an interesting phenomena that the vaste majority of ads accessed by folks from handhelds are from iDevices.

Not sure, but I could attribute some of that to the way I believe iPhones handle connectivity. Mine, in proximity of a WiFi signal it knows about, will prefer that to using cell data. Certainly happens that way at home, but haven't had the opportunity to try that at Starbucks, Panera, etc. At the very least I note that it provides me that option when I try to access something that requires internet connectivity, and it sees the WiFi availability. I tend to leave WiFi turned on on my iPhone, as it doesn't appear to cost me any battery life, unless I am actually running an app that makes use of it. I don't do that on my WinMo phones, so when at Starbucks with those, I am using the cell network as opposed to WiFi for internet access.