N95 bests iPhone in mobile browsing stats by 6 to 1?

[slitchfield]

Showing that you really can't believe every stat you read without knowing the exact context, and remembering the attention some USA mobile browsing stats got when they announced that Apple iPhone browser use trumped that of any other device, I was interested to see stats from respected UK computer magazine/web site PC Pro, showing the top 5 mobile devices that had accessed their servers in 2008 so far. Read on....

Read on in the full article.

[krisse]

I'm most amazed by the PSP being at the top there!

It doesn't even have a keypad, so just entering a website address is a bit painful.

Incidentally, I just looked at my own sites' stats and the S60 browser seems to be listed as "Safari / SymbianOS". I wonder how many people have assumed that all their Safari traffic is Macs and iPhones.

What would be interesting and I believe would tell a very different story is usage of the BBC's web site.

I think that PC Pro readers are more likely to be people that got the N95 early because what excites them is long feature lists and now find themselves locked into 12 or 18 month contracts. They use the N95 because they have to, not because they have a great experience using it.

Stats from the BBC will, I think, be quite different. They'll show a huge number of regular iPhone users using their site that would only have received a bad experience using mobile browsers in the past.

What's important is mainstream usage of mobile browsers, not geek niche usage.

I also note that my website stats show Nokia S60 access as Safari. Not Safari/S60, just Safari. It's AWStats.

As for being locked in to 12 or 18 months, remember non iPhones are available on far cheaper contracts and PAYG.

The other factor here for mobile web access is that iPhone is restricted to WiFi, doesn't have 3G so isn't as truly mobile as other devices, for instance a normal phone sold on a network with an inclusive data plan wil browse websites anywhere practically as fast as WiFi. An iPhone restricted to a poor EDGE infrastructure is actually a pretty awful browsing experience I can vouch. In all the places I have Wi-Fi I have 17 Inch screens and qwerty.

As for geek phones, the two handed operation of a touchscreen in public is, frankly, embarassing. iPhone pretty geeky it has to be said.

Anyone want to buy out my 02 contract... no. thought not. Why would you?

"regular iPhone users"?

I'm pretty sure the majority of the UK excluding the geeks would think twice before spending £250 on a phone and being locked into an 18 month contract.

The only "regular" iPhone users are probably the posers or those with too much money to spend.

I think the stats from one obscure website don't actually constitute a statistically valid sample.

If it was BBC.com I might be more impressed.

[ramzez]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

As for geek phones, the two handed operation of a touchscreen in public is, frankly, embarassing. iPhone pretty geeky it has to be said.

Anyone want to buy out my 02 contract... no. thought not. Why would you?

LOL, blackberry should be quite embarrassing as well then, besides who cares what people think, BBC iPlayer is launching for iPhone, and believe or not it does offers great user experience.

as for the 02 contract, 600min/500txt/unlimited internet and voicemail - 35 quid, why not, it is great tariff, T-Mobile Flext is not cheaper and has limitations.


As for stats, why would i go to PC Pro? BBC - yes, Facebook - yes, Digg- Yes, Google Reader & Gmail, Yahoo - yes, engadget - yes.
First to be surprised with iPhone browsing stats was Google, i do trust them.

[ramzez]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

"regular iPhone users"?

I'm pretty sure the majority of the UK excluding the geeks would think twice before spending £250 on a phone and being locked into an 18 month contract.

The only "regular" iPhone users are probably the posers or those with too much money to spend.

that's very true, but why geeks? are people who bought Nokia 8800 with less features geeks?

Don't forget you are buying an iPod + Phone, not a phone! so, if you deduce iPod touch of 199 pounds, means you pay 50 pounds for the phone.

I am not defending, but i just don't seem why people think of it as a phone only, that's incorrect way of comparing. Now of course you will start comparing it to the N95 which doesn't offer big display and great battery life, and it's music player usability is questionable, not taking touch screen capability - but that would be too geeky.

I know it is hard to take a change, but don't think of iPhone as a phone, think of it as iPod Touch + phone capabilities.

[krisse]

What's important is mainstream usage of mobile browsers, not geek niche usage.

If we're talking about truly mainstream usage of mobile browsers, then it's the simple XHTML browsers that will dominate all statistics because they're built into practically all phones, even the cheapest models. The trouble is that most websites don't have a version which can be rendered on an XHTML browser (though there are exceptions, the BBC for example has a very very extensive mobile-friendly version of its site).

The iPhone, and indeed the N95, are very expensive devices indeed, only a tiny percentage of people on the planet will ever own one. Cheap phones by contrast have sold something like 2 billion units so far, which covers one in three people in the world.

Any phone browser revolution will only happen when advanced browsers are available in the kind of phone most people use, which means phones that cost about 100 euros or less. I'd bet that we will first reach a 100 euro smartphone with S60 models, as Apple has never shown an interest in the cheap end of any market, their devices are always mid to high end.

iPhone will fade into its well-deserved irrelevance in about two years

'as for the 02 contract, 600min/500txt/unlimited internet and voicemail - 35 quid, why not, it is great tariff, T-Mobile Flext is not cheaper and has limitations.'

Are you joking? This is a network with a limited EDGE for a iPhone that can uses EDGE? and has no 3G? How can they justify that with huge initial fee to take the phone away? There are some mugs in this country.

'LOL, blackberry should be quite embarrassing as well then'

Agreed.

[kflyer]

"May 2008 issue of PCPro"
-Hey Steve, you got a time machine? I think you had wanted to write as March.

[slitchfield]

Nope. May. Magazines have silly date stamps in the UK these days 8-(

"Don't forget you are buying an iPod + Phone, not a phone! so, if you deduce iPod touch of 199 pounds, means you pay 50 pounds for the phone."

Don't be silly. All but the most pathetic, basic phones are mp3 players too. If you take 200 off the price of the iPhone, you have to take the same of the other devices too.