i-minds

The release of the iPhone 4S was one of the most widely anticipated in Apples history, with hundreds of thousands of gadget-lovers around the world queuing up outside Apple stores – even resulting in outbreaks of violence, most notably following the recent release in China. The key point of pride of the new iPhone – or at least the focus of Apples marketing – seems to be “Siri”, the voice recognition software that allows you to use the vast majority of the iPhones fantastic features simply by telling the phone what you want it to do.

Unfortunately this great new feature is not without its problems, with recent revelations that it uses almost twice as much data as the previous iPhone’s – making life pretty difficult for operators. In fact, a recent survey suggested that the iPhone 4S used up to THREE times as much as the earlier 3G models. One way to get around this is to buy the iPhone with a SIM only contract that is much cheaper per month.

It would be harsh to blame Siri entirely though because whilst there is no doubt it has contributed significantly to the data usage increase, there are many other iPhone features that have put increased stress on the networks. One such feature is the cloud synchronization with Apples servers to update apps and music which is also likely to be contributing to the increased data requirement for the users. Unfortunately this is unlikely to decrease any time soon with future iPhones likely to also feature Siri and as the other features develop, those actively using the so-called “virtual assistant”, is likely to grow exponentially.

Whilst iPhone 4S users are clear ahead in terms of data usage, the survey that brought this all to light also showed a growing trend with almost all new phones showing an increase in data usage with every manufacturer creating new models that are increasingly data hungry.

One particularly interesting fact put forward by the same survey, carried out by a company called Arieso, is that the iPhone’s main rival BlackBerry’s latest releases actually only require around 20% of the data that the iPhone 4S users currently use. This is in part because the manufacturers aim to compress data but also because the majority of BlackBerry users do not use anywhere near as many applications outside of normal email – unlike iPhone users.

So whatever the reason, we’ve established that iPhone 4S users are facing increased data usage – a trend likely to continue with the future iPhone models. But what does this really mean for the average user? Well the main worry is that it can lead to large increases in your monthly bills. A lot of recent iPhone contracts over the last few years have not shared the restriction-free data access that is offered by many other manufacturers. If you are one such iPhone user with a set limit, the much higher data usage can quickly us up your limit and result in excessive charges for going over it – just by using applications like Siri. For those lucky enough to have unlimited data, there is still the concern that these heavily increasing data usage could put such a strain on the networks that it could result in network failures.