Business Technology : IPhones Take Over the Internet
We’ve always felt that the iPhone’s game-changing feature was its Web browser. Now we have proof: iPhone owners were responsible for nearly one out of every 1,000 Web page views last month. This erases any doubt that the future of mobile devices most certainly includes the Web.
Many phones have Web browsers, but most of the time these were made specifically for mobile devices and only give phone owners access to watered-down versions of Web sites. The iPhone has the same browser as Apple’s computers, meaning iPhone owners can see the same version of Web pages people see on their PCs.
IPhone owners embraced the browser to the extent that they represented 0.09% of all Web pages viewed in November. That doesn’t sound like much, but consider that through September, Apple had only sold 1.4 million iPhones. As a point of comparison, devices running every version of Windows mobile operating system combined made up 0.06% of Web page views. Companies have been making mobile devices that run Windows since 1996, according to Computer World, and three million of the devices were shipped in the first quarter of 2007 alone, according to research company Gartner. Here’s some more perspective: By our calculations, iPhone owners are about 90 times more likely to view a Web page than the typical Internet user, of whom there are approximately 1.25 billion worldwide.
Small device makers have been pushing this agenda for years.
found by Peter Inova
So much for all the predictions of the iphone being a flop from the anti Apple folks.
#1
“So much for all the predictions of the iphone being a flop from the anti Apple folks.”
A snob’s accesory is never out of fashion.
“iPhone owners are about 90 times more likely to view a Web page than the typical Internet user, of whom there are approximately 1.25 billion worldwide.”
Maybe until their direct payment option gets over drafted. Until I get a tazer on my smart phone it is not smart.
The number of Windows Mobile users is very misleading because I and many other users “spoof” their browser to show as “desktop”(Windows IE), which doesn’t direct us to the mobile versions of web sites.
oooooo…. that’s so impresssive…. almost 1/10th of 1% of web pages browsed were with iPhones… 0.09% to be exact…. ooooooo… all other web browsing platforms are trembling in their shoes!!!
Mobile web browsing it taking over!
Aside from the fact that those figures can not be right (1 Million iPhones -vs- a gazzzillion computers). All iPhone users would have to spend 100% of their day browsing as fast as possible to reach even that small figure.
I find the 1/1000 number surprising, but quite believable. I do a lot of my web reading on my iPhone, even when my laptop or desktop machines are available. For reading columns on news sites and many blogs, it is really ideal. The text is extremely clear and about the size of a newspaper column. Very convenient.
I really like the “90 times more likely to view a page, but I’m not sure that I buy the arithmetic. If there are 1,250,000,000 internet users and 1,400,000 iPhone users then the ration of iPhones to internet users is about 1:1000, and the ratio of their web usage is 1:1000.
If the 1.25B and 1.4M are precise and accurate, then .11% of the users are accounting for .09% of the use. Of course, they aren’t that accurate so calling it .1% in both cases is probably good enough. Still, if iPhone users are reading as many web pages as the average internet user, that’s still surprising and good.
Brons
Pedro, it said 1.5 billion INTERNET users. Learn to read and get back out there and cut my grass.
Thanks for the post. This blog and Techcrunch are the best blogs on the planet. Keep up the great work.
This is BS. Yes the Iphone is a success but to say that 1 out of every 1000 was viewed by an Iphone seems to have a smell to it.
Hah! All your page views are belong to us! Pffft! Bwahahahahaha! Other expression of contemptuous derision as required!
Love or hate the iPhone, the internet on it is a 1000 times easer to use that the windows mobile devices. I had given up on using web browsers on phones until the iPhone.
I still prefer Opera Mini to the iPhone’s Safari. On devices with big screens like the iPhone, sites look good, while on smaller devices, like my flip phone, it scales them intelligently.
I’m an iPhone user and I just do not beleive it. I’ll bet it is either BS number are there is a bot causing PCs to look like iPhones to the servers.
“iPhone owners were responsible for nearly one out of every 1,000 Web page views last month. ”
I call BULLSHIT on that statement!
Whoever made that assertion should be shot for being a stupid head-up-steve’s-ass fanboy angling for s freebie out of Cupertino!
>>I call BULLSHIT on that statement!
Yeah, me too. NINETY times more page views with an iPhone than a regular user? If an “average internet user” spends 1/2 hour per day on the net, according to the calculations in the article, and iPhone user would spend 45 hours (0.5hr * 90) on the internet.
Page view is APPLE Home page, the DEFAULT….DUH..
Unless they go back to 800dpi wide PAGES, and 12pt font…ON EVERY PAGE…this is really going to kill your eyes.
Pay attention, boys and girls…
1 out of every 1000 internet users is an iPhone user: 1.25 Billion vs 1.4 Million. 1 out of every 1000 web hits is from an iPhone. Ergo iPhone users browse the net at the same rate as the average Internet user. That’s surprising but not unbelievable.
It IS remarkable that someone made a phone that’s as good a Web access tool as a computer, but its not 90:1 unbelievable.
Put away you disdain for Apple or your smug arrogance in being an iPhone user and realize that Apple has done something innovative and successful but not astounding, except in that sheer competence is becoming remarkable these days.
I know. It’s more fun to rant, but stop and do the math. Please.
Brons
My question is:
Does the browser tags SAY sepecifically the device is an iPhone?
Anyone got a log entry that shows it?
Cursor_
#21: Yes, the OS and platform is generally part of the UserAgent string that every browser sends to the server… and Safari on the iPhone quite proudly displays what it is and what device it is on.
The problem with these numbers is that not all browsers do, especially on the mobile browser side of things, which is why the whole “iPhone beats Windows Mobile” slant on this story should be taken with a grain of salt. Opera Mobile, for instance, which is a quite common replacement for Pocket IE, has UA spoofing to avoid getting watered-down pages.
That said, it wouldn’t suprise me, personally, if the iPhone is more common on the net than other phones. After all, it does come with a decent working browser, unlike many WinMo phones, and since it is almost completely centered aroudn internet use. It’s not a long stretch to imagine that the owner of such a phone would be more likely to surf on it, than would owners of other phones.
Guess this only proves that iPhone users bought a cool toy and have no real life beyond the web where they spend all of their time. Never bet against Jobs salesmanship, even if the product does suck and is extremely expensive, he will be able to sell it just by saying it’s what everyone wants.
#19, Brons, good post. I wondered when someone would get the facts straight.
Forget reasoning with the Microbrains here. They’d be using DOS V.1,899,956 off a set of floppies if innovation were left up to MS.
#19 The problem with you math is that I’d be willing to bet that most iPhone users didn’t stop using a regular computer for most of there internet use. I sure didn’t.
This is a great story for the hacks to get worked up over, because in reality the numbers don’t matter. Apple is the hot company, and the iPhone is the “it” device… regardless of what idiots like Pedro say.
No one knows the true traffic numbers on the ‘net. If they did, they’d find a way to make a buck off of it (look at how well the tracking companies already do).
Hell, I drove across the USA in September with nothing but the maps function on my iPhone (operated by my girlfriend/navigator) for guidance. We never had a problem. WE also used it to look up places to stay and eat, and also used it to make the reservations. The iPhone was a lot more functional than a laptop in that application, that’s for sure.
>>The iPhone was a lot more functional than
>>a laptop in that application, that’s for
>>sure.
Yeah yeah. But how much of your internet time since getting the iPhone has been spent using the iPhone for internet access? Ninety times as much as with a regular computer?
MM, read post 19. You’ve misinterpreted the research.
>>MM, read post 19. You’ve misinterpreted
>>the research.
I read post 19, Jimbo. And I read the article (and looked at the linked site).
I was not interpreting anything; I was quoting an exact figure from the “research”: “By our calculations, iPhone owners are about 90 times more likely to view a Web page than the typical Internet user,“.
So unless iPhone users only spend 1/90 the amount of time per page as regular internet users, the article is claiming that iPhone users spend 90X the amount of time on the internet as regular users.
And furthermore, Jimbo, if the point of the “research” was (in direct contrast to the conclusion they drew from it) simply that iPhone users spent the SAME AMOUNT of time, relative to their prevalence in the overall population, as regular users, then the article itself is internally inconsistent.
I agree that even having an equivalent web viewership on the iPhone would be a feat, given the tiny screen size, having to hold the gizmo up in front of your face the whole time, the cost, etc. Notwithstanding the absurd TV ads apple shows with the male airline stewardess who checks the weather on his iPhone, alerts air traffic control, and shaves hours off the flight’s travel time.
You’re pretty angry there mustard. Someone tell you off on MySpace?
Don’t kill yourself, K?
Not angry at all, Jimbo. In fact, most people don’t call me Mister Mustard in real life, they call me Mellow Yellow (get it? Mustard? Yellow?)
My daughter has an iPhone, and I wouldn’t mind one myself if I could get one for free, like most other cell phones. I just don’t like bullshit “research”.