Sometimes a really great innovation comes along and everyone loves it and then a horrible truth is revealed and I think “this is why we can’t have nice things”. The iPhone 4S’s Siri artificial intelligence system has been a big hit. So people have been using their phones a lot more. So much so that 4S owners use TWICE AS MUCH data as iPhone 4 users who have to type things into their phones.
Furthermore: a study today from Arieso reveals the top 1 percent of smartphone users hog up half of the bandwidth. Dig a little deeper, and the report says the top 10 percent are responsible for a whopping 90 percent of traffic. Arieso calls these data hoarders “extreme users.”
Arieso says:
The most significant change in consumer behaviour between 2010 and 2011 data has been catalysed by the introduction of the iPhone 4S. iPhone 4S users download 2.76 times as much data as users of the iPhone 3G. And while an Android-powered device maintains last year’s position at the top of the table for uplink data volumes, with HTC Desire S users typically uploading 3.23 times as much data as iPhone 3G users, the iPhone 4S falls just behind in this category with a typical 3.20 times as much data uploaded.
And what does that mean? That’s right: 4S users are ruining everything for everyone. Because now wireless carriers are going to have to move a lot more data over those networks which they say are already overburdened. That could mean data caps for all of us, coupled with few options in picking a wireless carriers. All because the fancy folks talking to Siri won’t shut up.
THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS.
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