Research company Ericsson have established that Apple’s iPhone, whilst only holding 20% of the world’s smartphone customer base, accounts for 45% of all 3G mobile traffic.

The report showed that Apple topped the data usage charts with a huge majority, Android holds around 15% of users, and takes up 30% of our bandwidth. The survey was conducted across Europe, America and Asia, and it shows that the average data usage per month is around 350Mb. It’s pretty clear that because the iPhone is a premium phone, the contract customers are signing up to often encompass a larger data allowance because of that premium, so the results to reflect the expected outcome. However, whilst the news will probably prove handy in a pub quiz one day, it raises a more interesting question…

As many disgruntled iPhone users know, the iPhone only operates on 3G, and its quickly being surpassed as phones and networks are upgraded to 4G (LTE). This is particularly evident in the U.S. Because the iPhone is using so much of the bandwidth that carriers have to offer, they have to keep investing in the older 3G networks to keep them running.

As summarised by Donald Masters from World News Resource: Carriers investing large amounts of money in its older 3G networks means that less time and money can be spent on developing 4G networks, “stunting the growth of an essential progression”. What’s more, the problem will only worsen when Apple releases its next iPhone, with 4G capability almost a certainty, the prices of Apple’s earlier 3G devices will plummet, pushing up the demand for 3G bandwidth once more…

@TiP_Stephen