A new industry study has found that iPhone 4S consumes twice the amount of data as that of the previous iPhone model.
The iPhone 4S is considered as a heavy data gadget, with most of the blame on a personal application Siri that responds to voice commands to perform search, thereby placing increasing pressure on available carrier bandwidth.
Arieso’s Chief Technology Officer Michael Flanagan said he used the iPhone 4 himself and when he first heard of the iPhone 4S features he was not compelled to rush out and get one, though adding he missed the data usage numbers. He added a tablet looks like a ‘big smartphone’.
Data usage of the previous model, the iPhone 4, was only 1.6 times higher than the iPhone 3G, while an iPad consumes data 2.5 times more than that of iPhone 3G.
The usage of data networks has been doubling each year, as mobile data usage is on the rise since Apple’s first iPhone was launched in 2007.
The heavy data consumption is a source of concern for network operators, which they would not admit for fear of losing customers.
Flanagan advised operators to identify heavy users of data and allocate small ‘cellsites’ in the form of tiny ‘base stations’ to ease pressure off their mobile networks.
The requirement of new base stations will increase the avenues for gear makers such as Nokia Siemens Networks and Ericsson, in wake of operators cashing in on internet browsing needs of end-users rather than voice-calls.
