iPhone, iPad now represent 83% of WiFi mobile devices
The company's WiFi Snapshot report notes that smartphones and tablets now make up 58.9 percent of all devices using the company's networks installed within 60 airports in North America and Europe and 400,000 other WiFi hotspots globally.
Among those mobile devices, iOS makes up 83 percent of the traffic. The firm said Android has tripled its share from last year "but is still a distant fourth place to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices."
"Given the latest numbers, I think it's safe to say 2011 is the year Wi-Fi became an essential part of mobile Internet connectivity," Dawn Callahan, the vice president of consumer marketing for Boingo Wireless said.
"Since the launch of the iPhone in June 2007, we've seen a marked growth trend for non-laptop devices, but the exponential growth in iPhones and iPads in the last year pushed mobile devices past laptops, showcasing just how disruptive the trend is."
62 Comments
I understand why there are less "PCs' being used at airports, but where are the damn Android-based devices that are apparently so much more popular with users than anything Apple makes.
I'm surprised at the low numbers for Android devices, in relation to its alleged marketshare.
Are these corporate devices, locked down and not used for airport web-surfing (i.e., personal web-surfing)?
I understand why there are less "PCs' being used at airports, but where are the damn Android-based devices that are apparently so much more popular with users than anything Apple makes.
Popular because of low price... but suspect the average user can't make them work in that kind of environment so they don't get recorded.
On the other hand perhaps they all have 4G and don't need to connect to WiFi...
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I understand why there are less "PCs' being used at airports, but where are the damn Android-based devices that are apparently so much more popular with users than anything Apple makes.
Phandroids thinks what's good for them MUST be good for everyone else, regardless of how every single report showing the contrary says.
Popular because of low price... but suspect the average user can't make them work in that kind of environment so they don't get recorded.
On the other hand perhaps they all have 4G and don't need to connect to WiFi...
Over the weekend, a friend approached me frustrated that he could not get his new Android tablet working on our public WiFi. He's not tech-savvy. iPad was too expensive so he got suckered into buying some cheap, chinese, 7" plastic iPad knockoff (brand new) from the Internet for $60.
It was the biggest pile of $h!t I've come across. Nothing worked. The build quality was horrendous, and it required tapping the screen with the force of a sucker-punch in order for it to register anything on the touchscreen.
We must have spent 30 minutes trying to get it connected to our WiFi. I gave up. I pulled out my iPad and got on in seconds. The online retailer offered to return it but has to pay $54 in shipping to return it. So he essentially has a doorstop.
This is exactly why I hate all that Android crap. It's becoming the PC paradigm where everyone races to the bottom and the customer gets screwed. Then, it makes the tablet industry look bad in general even though Apple had nothing to do with it.
Shame on people for continuing this garbage mentality and for hating Apple for smacking them in the face. These folks deserve it.