Data and Thoughts on How the Android-Based G1 Phone is Faring
by Sam Dean - Apr. 03, 2009Comments (1)- Related Blog Posts
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GigaOm has an interesting item up on the keynote speech that Robert Dotson, chief executive of T-Mobile USA, gave this week at CTIA in Las Vegas. An estimated 1.5 million G1 Android-based smartphones have been ordered, and Dotson provided a lot of notable statistics about the usage patterns people are showing for the phone and Android. I've been using the G1, and my usage lines up with some of Dotson's stats.
As GigaOm reports, from Dotson's speech:
1. 80 percent of G1 owners browse the web daily.
2. Four out of five G1 owners download apps at least once a week from the Android. On average, T-Mobile G1 customers have each downloaded more than 40 applications from the Android Market.
3. An average G1 owner consumes 50 times the data of the average voice-centric phone user.
4. Among T-Mobile customers who have purchased the G1, roughly half have traded up from a basic handset.
5. The majority of T-Mobile G1 owners use Facebook and YouTube at least once a week.
6. Half of G1 customers also access Wi-Fi on a daily basis.
Two items that jump out at me from these statistics are that 80 percent of G1 owners are browsing daily, and the average G1 owner consumes 50 times the data of the average voice-centric phone user. Android definitely creates a browsing-centric experience, and, although Dotson doesn't say so specifically, I suspect that a lot of G1 users make heavy use of the many tie-ins with Google's applications and search.
I'm also not surprised to see that people are regularly downloading new applications from the Android Market. There are now a lot of really useful applications for this phone, and it's good to see options showing up for working with the Microsoft applications that so many people use. That can only increase the reach of Android and the G1. DataViz has recently released its Documents To Go application, which lets you create and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files on the G1. Wrike’s ContactsCalendarSync is also now available, and you can get it for under $10 through April 16th. It synchronizes Calendar and Contacts between a T-Mobile G1 and a Microsoft Exchange server--features that many Microsoft Office-based users will demand.
The apps arriving from developers are also getting better and better. The G1 has a very precise camera in it and many of the applications for the phone, such as bar-code reading for products, take advantage of it. What needs to happen next for Android to really get traction with a lot of smartphone users is more innovative handsets need to arrive. The good news is several are on the way soon, including three from Samsung that will be less Google-centric.
