The latest mobile analytic report form Citrix shows some interesting trends for the mobile space, with a focus on the use of smartphones in the consumer as well as the enterprise markets. The report says that the BYOD trend is leading to more use of private smartphones in the enterprise markets, with all the results from the consumer markets also effecting the enterprise arena.
One of the key takeaways is that larger devices lead to more data usage and in turn to higher data plan costs. As an example, the company sees the data usage on the iPhone 6 Plus as twice that on the iPhone 6. Earlier models of the iPhone show even lower data consumption.
One of the key messages of the report is what the smartphone is used for today. As an added bonus it shows distinct difference of usage depending on the mobile phone platform used. If you always thought that Apple users are different form Android users, here is the proof.
Source: Citrix
As an example Citrix sees the increase in the consumption of video in the sports field as more than doubling from half a year ago. In Q3 2014 the data usage for sports videos reached 21% of all sports related data, compared to 50% in this quarter. The average video interaction in the sports field is 2.6 minutes. In other words, people watch particular scenes and not complete games. There seems also to be a distinct difference between iOS and Android users. iPhone users favor video strongly over images, while Android users are still using images at the same data rate as video. Since video eats up so much more data, Android users seem to be much more data conscious than iOS users.
On the other hand, Citrix points out that apps in gaming are made much more use of in game video sequences to attract customers. It says that all the top five games in 2015 use video in their games, compared to only two of the top five in 2014 and zero in 2013. Not only is the video streaming importance relevant for data usage, but also for success in the app market.
Source: Citrix
The other observation seems to be quite obvious though. The report sees that the engagement with video content varies by content source. For example, if you watch a video on YouTube, the typical engagement time is much shorter than for a Netflix movie. (Well, a typical movie is much longer than a YouTube short video.) What is surprising is that about one third of people watching Netflix content on a smartphone do so for more than 30 minutes and over half for more than 15 minutes. Since movies are typically longer than 60 minutes, it is fair to say that these users do not watch the movie in one sitting for whatever reason.
While iOS is still dominating the use of smartphones in the enterprise world and in every region, there are distinct differences by world regions, with America being the most iOS-friendly, APAC being the most Android-friendly and Europe showing more Windows Phone use than other regions. Within the enterprise markets there are also large differences for the various professions.
Citrix sees no slowdown in the growth of data usage since the last report. – Norbert Hildebrand
