Apple iPhone 6 Plus owners outpace all other iPhone owners in data consumption, doubling the amount used by iPhone 6 owners and exceeding iPhone 3GS owners by a factor of ten. As reported by Citrix, the data consumption pattern of iPhone 6 Plus owners mirrors that of tablet users.
data-animation-override>
“iPhone 6 Plus subscribers generate the most data volume, double that of an iPhone 6. This increase impacts subscribers when choosing a new device – be careful to select a data plan that matches your super-sized screen.Clearly the phablet sized iPhone 6 Plus shows data usage patterns more akin to tablet usage. For mobile operators, this increase provides an opportunity to shift subscriber Wi-Fi usage towards mobile networks.”
Our take on the news:
These results are not surprising given the larger size of the iPhone 6 Plus screen. The iPhone 6 Plus makes it a breeze to browse websites, watch movies and navigate maps on the go. You are more likely to grab your 6 Plus and look up something right away instead of waiting until you have your iPad or Mac in front of you. It’s also big enough that it becomes an iPad replacement for some people, allowing them to use one device to met all their internet needs instead of two.
Interestingly enough, I looked at my family’s data usage since the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and it corresponds to the results of the study. I own an iPhone 6 Plus and use two to three times the data of my husband who owns an iPhone 6. He, however, also has an iPad Air, and when you combine the data usage on both his devices, it comes close to my data usage on the iPhone 6 Plus. This observation suggests to me that, in my case, I am using the iPhone 6 Plus as a tablet replacement.
