If there's one boon of the Apple iPhone's £35-a-month tariff, it's that it comes bundled with unlimited time online. And it appears the strategy is working, with Google announcing that more traffic is coming from the iPhone than any other mobile device. That's despite the phone only having 2 per cent of the smartphone market globally (even if it's 19.5 per cent in the US, according to Sir Jobs last week).
Mind you, perhaps it's not surprising that it's Google who has provided these stats - remember YouTube and
Google Maps
are apps that come as standard on the iPhone.
The info will make encouraging reading for Apple, which remains convinced of the device's web potential. Even though the net isn't exactly fast on O2's EDGE network, the unlimited tariff ensures generous use. And, even though we're all awaiting the 3G iPhone, there's no guarantee that O2 will make 3G on the iPhone similarly free and easy. We've asked O2 for its views on Google's stats.
O2 misses sales target
However, we'll warrant that it's unlikely that there has been huge take-up in use of the Wi-Fi iTunes store. On-phone music downloads have never achieved great success and it's unlikely Apple will buck the trend in the short term.
According to analyst M:Metrics, just 1.9 per cent of those who listen to music on their mobiles in the UK are downloading music directly onto their device from a music service. And that's down to 1 per cent in the US.
Today's Financial Times reports that O2 has missed its initial 200,000-unit eight-week sales target on the iPhone. Some 190,000 have left the physical and virtual doors of Apple, Carphone Warehouse and O2.
Analyst Gartner had predicted that as many as double that number could be sold in the eight-week timeframe.
