What can you do with a 100MB data

[macenthu]

iPad 3G is here, people are cutting down their SIMs, and as usual our telecom providers are charging a premium to provide data over 3G.

I thought why not calculate how much am I getting in return? If you ask the customer service, their answers could be so vague that you might think "why on earth have I asked them". Very confusing indeed.

So I've done a rough estimate. This is not 100% accurate, but almost.

At least, it gives you a fair idea, which data package to choose from.

• Average email size is 15KB (sending and receiving w/out attachment)
• Average complete webpage is 1MB (browsing)
• Average 'iPhone' optimised webpage is 20KB (browsing)
• Average size of iPhone Apps is 5MB (download)

So, here's what you can 'do' with a 100MB of data...

• 6000 emails per month, or 220 per day
• 100 web pages per month, or 3.4 per day
• 5000 iPhone optimised web pages per month, or 166 per day
• 20 iPhone Apps per month, or less than 1 per day

These results are from iPhone 3GS. And as I'm yet to get my iPad, it will be great if some someone performs a test on iPad 3G.

[michl]

Hey thanks for posting this. Very useful indeed, although I guess usage can still vary a lot from people to people.

For instance I was quite shocked to read "Average complete webpage is 1MB". Perhaps for news sites and other media-rich pages, yes... But luckily there are still plenty of HTML-only text pages that weigh less then 100KB! In general I would still think several hundreds KB is more like it. See for instance WebSiteOptimization statistics...

Also, note that iPad apps and esp. universal iPad+iPhone apps will likely be larger now! Also because iPhone and iPad storage page increases apps tend to get larger. Those iPad apps I have on disk are an average 30MB - from 650KB for XE Currency to 157MB for CastleCraft... On the other hand GoodReader for iPhone is 8.6MB while the iPad only version is 8.8MB.

[bellacat]

Hi, is that all together, or each category is separate that you can do with 100MB

[michl]

Hi, is that all together, or each category is separate that you can do with 100MB

It's clearly separate, based on the average figures given by macenthu. For instance:
"Average complete webpage is 1MB (browsing)"
so 100 MB = 100 web pages per month (and nothing else). Or:
"Average size of iPhone Apps is 5MB (download)"
and thus 100 MB = 20 iPhone Apps per month.

[bellacat]

Thank you, I must have been having a "blonde moment", I totally understand now! So I definitely won't be going for the deal I've been offered then that includes only 100MB a month!

[AntonGomez]

Not much. The average consumption of data for an average user is somewhere between 500MB-1GB

[michl]

Not much. The average consumption of data for an average user is somewhere between 500MB-1GB

Yes and no. As the above examples show, it is plenty if only checking e-mail and occasional web browsing, etc. But not quite if downloading apps, music, movies...

This 18-month old Consumer Report showed that "on average, iPhone users consume 273 MBs of data per month. That compares with 54 MBs for consumer users of Blackberrys and 150 MBs for consumers who use other brands of smart phones."

And according to this Nielsen article, as of 2 months ago, US statistics have increased sharply to "582 MBs per month for the average Android owner and 492 MBs for the average iPhone user."

[AntonGomez]

Yes and no. As the above examples show, it is plenty if only checking e-mail and occasional web browsing, etc. But not quite if downloading apps, music, movies...

This 18-month old Consumer Report showed that "on average, iPhone users consume 273 MBs of data per month. That compares with 54 MBs for consumer users of Blackberrys and 150 MBs for consumers who use other brands of smart phones."

And according to this Nielsen article, as of 2 months ago, US statistics have increased sharply to "582 MBs per month for the average Android owner and 492 MBs for the average iPhone user."

I was merely basing my "average" statistics on what me and several people I know with iPhones have been spending for the past year and a half or so. I believe it's always better be safe than sorry. You never know, you could be tempted to YouTube while waiting for someone or whenever. That would strip your 100MB down in a short period of time. Interesting statistics though, especially the fact that we consume more and more data as we progress

[karimkh]

I have now an iPad2 wifi+3G and I am looking at getting the 100MB Plan to start with.
Knowing how much would be the average consumption is ok. the real question is how much of this consumption you do over wifi and how much over 3G!
At home, at friends or in a cafe, we would be on wifi.
the 3G is really on the go and in rather limited moments.
beside critical emails and browsing for info, who would download a movie or many apps over 3G!!!

regards

[Whackhead]

If you are looking at using it only for Data, my advice would be to look at DU. Their rates are better (if nothing changed since I got mine).
If you by any chance have an iphone, register your DU sim on the iPhone plan, where you score an additional 1Gig data per month for a year.

100mb should be enough for basic browsing and critical e-mails only.