12pc of mobile data usage in North America dedicated to music streaming

20 Jun 2013

Image via Shutterstock

Data from the Citrix ByteMobile Mobile Analytics Report for Q2 2013 provides an insight into mobile data usage worldwide and which apps are dominating data traffic.

The June 2013 report highlights mobile music services – particularly internet radio – as an emerging mobile data category. In the recent period, 12pc of mobile data volume in North America came through mobile music platforms. Outside of this region, the figure is at 4pc.

This traffic in the US is currently driven by Spotify and Pandora, and, with the recent announcement of iTunes Radio, this volume is sure to increase.

Popular apps

Mobile search per subscriber is up 25pc since February 2012 and the vast majority (97pc) of mobile search data volume is generated by Google, Yahoo and Bing combined.

A significant chunk of mobile data volume on iOS devices – 82pc to be exact – is taken up by just four apps: Media Player, Safari, App Store and Facebook, with Facebook rising from 1pc of data volume in February 2012 to 5pc in June 2013. These four apps also generate 52pc of mobile data transactions.

In fact, Media Player accounts for almost half of mobile data volume on iOS devices, while 82pc of mobile video entertainment traffic on all platforms is generated by YouTube.

Listening to music image via Shutterstock

Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com