Apple's iOS lineup accounts for 84% of in-flight Wi-Fi traffic from mobile devices

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
In-flight Wi-Fi provider Gogo on Thursday reported that iOS users account for the lion's share of mobile devices accessing the company's ground-to-air Wi-Fi network, with iPhone owners comprising some 73 percent of all traffic originating from smartphones.

Gogo
Source: Gogo


According to Gogo, an in-flight Wi-Fi provider operating on 1,800 aircraft across ten carriers, including United, Delta and American Airlines, some 84 percent of all mobile devices connecting to its service have been identified as running Apple's iOS. Products using rival operating system Android account for the remaining 16 percent.

While iOS still rules the skies, the OS saw a decline from a 96.8 percent share in 2011, while Android use grew 400 percent over the same period.

Breaking down the statistics by device, smartphones and tablets combine to make up 67 percent of portables being used to access the internet in-flight. Tablets enjoy the most use with a 35 percent share, while laptops and smartphones comes in at 33 percent and 32 percent, respectively.

Apple's presence is dominating, with the iPhone accounting for 73 percent of smartphones recorded, compared to Android's 26 percent. Handsets running on BlackBerry and Windows didn't break the 1 percent mark.

Gogo said that passengers spend most of their time surfing the Web, with Apple's Safari being the most used browser, followed by Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Google's Chrome. Other Internet activities ranking high on the list of things to do while traveling include writing emails, accessing social media sites, checking sports scores and shopping.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    A 12.8% drop over 2 years. DOOMED!
  • Reply 2 of 16
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member


    Android devices: Buy 'em, just don't try 'em.

  • Reply 3 of 16
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member


    We all know that Android people barely use their phones as smartphones, since they've always been extremely underrepresented in web usage stats, even though there are fifty three billion Android activations per day.


     


    And now we find out that Android people apparently don't fly planes much either, based on these charts. 


     


    As always, I have a few theories to present. 


     


    (1) A person who either buys or gets a low end Android phone for free isn't the kind of person who is likely to afford many plane tickets. I have a feeling that if I took a long trip on a Greyhound bus, I'd encounter quite a few Android users. Who the hell is going to sit on a bus for days on end to get from one coast to the other? Anything to save a buck I guess.


     


    (2) If those inflight WIFI services costs money, then an Android user is less likely to pay for that privilege, since stats show that Android users spend far less money than users of other platforms like iOS. In other words, Android users are cheap, and that's not merely an opinion. That's what all of the stats are telling us. 

  • Reply 4 of 16


    Face it:  Android Users are simply too poor to buy In-Flight Wi-Fi service.

  • Reply 5 of 16
    Watch out for that Shamsung juggernaut!
  • Reply 6 of 16
    The Android users probably changed their user-agent in their browser. /s
  • Reply 7 of 16
    virtuavirtua Posts: 209member
    For mac users that would be the mountain lions share ;)
  • Reply 8 of 16

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Satalite View Post



    A 12.8% drop over 2 years. DOOMED!


     






    That's how WSJ will report it. "Android eats Apple's share of inflight wifi use". The article will conspicuously fail to mention anything about the 84% Apple has.

  • Reply 9 of 16
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member


    All the evidence points to a continuing, robust iOS universe which makes the recent Wall Street about turn on AAPL all the more curious. Do the analysts really think Apple is headed for the garbage dump? And if so, why?

  • Reply 10 of 16
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    satalite wrote: »
    A 12.8% drop over 2 years. DOOMED!

    Wall Street ...

    "Over 400% increase in Android WiFi traffic while Apple iOS plunges" :no:
  • Reply 11 of 16
    froodfrood Posts: 771member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by lkrupp View Post


    All the evidence points to a continuing, robust iOS universe which makes the recent Wall Street about turn on AAPL all the more curious. Do the analysts really think Apple is headed for the garbage dump? And if so, why?



     


    No.  They still think Apple is the most valuable company in the US.  The only place I really see 'Apple is doomed' frequently is here, by sarcastic Apple fans.  Apple is going to do well for a long time- but their future growth looks like it is slowing down.  Apple is inherently a hardware company which generally commands lower p/e ratios than software or tech companies.  In order for Apple to double in value- they would have to either sell twice as much hardware as they currently do or sell their existing hardware at twice the margins.  Neither is likely.  Not only is neither likely, but their margins are under pressure and their 'high end' Apple market is getting saturated.  It is exiting the growth phase and entering the 'competition' phase.  Apple has to beat a competitor that is fine with making zero profit on their hardware.  Not only that, but they make a substantial portion of their revenue even when Apple does well.  When you are fighting a competitor that 'wins' both when they win and when you win- its a tall order.


     


    Apple is nowhere near headed for the dumps and hopefully have a few things in the pipeline nobody knows about.  The iShackle watch thing and iTV could add some revenue- but I don't think either is going to be as huge as the phone market was for Apple.


     


    Wall Street likes growth and when you're the size Apple has become it becomes much harder to double in size than a smaller company.


     


    Apple also got hit by the 'hedge fund success' effect.  When a company does well, funds invest in it- that drives shares up even more and has a positive feedback effect.  Because the stock does well, it becomes a larger percentage of the funds portfolio.  That means they have to start selling shares to diversify their holdings.  That depresses the price and others see the fall and start getting out lowering the price further.


     


    Google is getting the hedge fund inflation now and as more funds invest they are large enough to drive shares up more.  Once you have most of the hedge funds heavily invested it is unlikely they will invest more- so the only direction for them to go is to pull out.  As an individual investor the trick is to beat the funds to that point.  When that happens Google too will have a 'fall' just like Apple did.  I put 'fall' in quotes because its not really a true fall.  The fall is only a result of the funds' artificial price inflation in the first place.


     


    And yes, Apple is doing tremendous with 84% share.  But before you beat up the Wall Streeties too much a simple question for you to answer for yourself, and it is not even a tough one:


     


    All other things being equal, which company is worth more, one that has a 97% share of something, or one that has an 84% share of something?

  • Reply 12 of 16
    kdarlingkdarling Posts: 1,640member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    We all know that Android people barely use their phones as smartphones, since they've always been extremely underrepresented in web usage stats, even though there are fifty three billion Android activations per day.



     


    That's proven incorrect statement.  Few repeat it anymore. It's been pointed out multiple times that when it comes to smartphones alone, the internet usage is the same.  The big difference comes when web usage stats add in the large number of iPads.  


     


    --


     


    What these WiFi stats won't show, of course, are all the tablets being used by parents to keep their kids quiet and entertained while on a plane.   They've been godsends for that.  


     


    I gave iPads to all my grandkids just for that purpose, because their flights are so long.  But they won't be using WiFi.  So there's even more tablets in use on the airplane than shows up here.

  • Reply 13 of 16
    steven n.steven n. Posts: 1,229member
    kdarling wrote: »
    That's proven incorrect statement.  Few repeat it anymore. <span style="line-height:1.231;">It's been pointed out multiple times that when it comes to smartphones alone, the internet usage is the same.  </span>
    <span style="line-height:1.231;">The big difference comes when web usage stats add in the large number of iPads.  </span>

    Not at all a true statement (I would almost say it is so wrong as to constitute a near lie). When you compare iPhone usage to Android phone usage there is a huge gap in usage stats from the IDC/Gartner fantasy market share numbers and web usage statistics. For example:

    http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-US-monthly-201202-201302

    Show me a single market study showing the iPhone having 52% market share in the US and Android less than 40%. There is a huge difference between a typical iPhone user and a typical Android phone user when it comes to device utilization and this shows up in web stat after web stat. NOTE: Before you claim this is because of the iPad, StatCounter does not track the iPad under Mobile OS but under Operating System against desktops.
  • Reply 14 of 16
    stelligentstelligent Posts: 2,680member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by KDarling View Post


     


    That's proven incorrect statement.  Few repeat it anymore. It's been pointed out multiple times that when it comes to smartphones alone, the internet usage is the same.  The big difference comes when web usage stats add in the large number of iPads.  


     


    --


     


    What these WiFi stats won't show, of course, are all the tablets being used by parents to keep their kids quiet and entertained while on a plane.   They've been godsends for that.  


     


    I gave iPads to all my grandkids just for that purpose, because their flights are so long.  But they won't be using WiFi.  So there's even more tablets in use on the airplane than shows up here.



     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Steven N. View Post





    Not at all a true statement (I would almost say it is so wrong as to constitute a near lie). When you compare iPhone usage to Android phone usage there is a huge gap in usage stats from the IDC/Gartner fantasy market share numbers and web usage statistics. For example:



    http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-US-monthly-201202-201302



    Show me a single market study showing the iPhone having 52% market share in the US and Android less than 40%. There is a huge difference between a typical iPhone user and a typical Android phone user when it comes to device utilization and this shows up in web stat after web stat. NOTE: Before you claim this is because of the iPad, StatCounter does not track the iPad under Mobile OS but under Operating System against desktops.


    I think Mr. Darling misremembered slightly. My recollection is that, sans tablets, Android is roughly equal to iOS over 3G. But iPhones (and iPads) are used more prolifically over Wifi than Android counterparts. I don't feel compelled to dig up a link to prove anything. So feel free not to believe me or hurl some invectives if you like. 

  • Reply 15 of 16
    ankleskaterankleskater Posts: 1,287member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by stelligent View Post


     


    I think Mr. Darling misremembered slightly. My recollection is that, sans tablets, Android is roughly equal to iOS over 3G. But iPhones (and iPads) are used far more prolifically over Wifi. I don't feel compelled to dig up a link to prove anything. So feel free not to believe me or hurl some invectives if you like. 





    You don't have to provide any "reference". People who demand links or references are just pretending to be rigorous. What is the idiotic point of using a questionable source to support a questionable argument?

  • Reply 16 of 16
    steven n.steven n. Posts: 1,229member
    stelligent wrote: »
    I think Mr. Darling misremembered slightly. My recollection is that, sans tablets, Android is roughly equal to iOS over 3G. But iPhones (and iPads) are used more prolifically over Wifi than Android counterparts. I don't feel compelled to dig up a link to prove anything. So feel free not to believe me or hurl some invectives if you like. 

    I think he mis-remembered grossly. The 3G stat deals with overall traffic not traffic per device. So Android has many more units but drives the same total 3G traffic. So even thinking he was referencing 3G data, it is still very true that an average Android user uses their phone less than an average iPhone user. To claim that this has proven false and no one repeats it is simply a delusion.
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