How Siri is ruining your cellphone service

[Chuckiechan]

Apple’s Siri threatens to damage cellphone service for all - The Washington Post

Siri’s dirty little secret is that she’s a bandwidth guzzler, the digital equivalent of a 10-miles-per-gallon Hummer H1.

To make your wish her command, Siri floods your cell network with a stream of data; her responses require a similarly large flow in return. A study published this month by Arieso, an Atlanta firm that specializes in mobile networks, found that the Siri-equipped iPhone 4S uses twice as much data as does the plain old iPhone 4 and nearly three times as much as does the iPhone 3G. The new phone requires far more data than most other advanced smartphones, which are pretty data-intensive themselves, The Post has reported.

In all, Arieso says that the Siri-equipped iPhone 4S “appears to unleash data consumption behaviors that have no precedent.”

[tony_j15]

Even compared to an iPhone, this thing is an iPhone!

[pickel]

In all, Arieso says that the Siri-equipped iPhone 4S “appears to unleash data consumption behaviors that have no precedent.”


That's like when the sailors hit the beach. The locals have to do without til the ship sets sail !!!!
LMAO

[brandon184]

Siri probably isn't the bandwidth hog the WaPo warned you about | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

At least in the press release summary of the study, however, there's no mention of Siri at all; just the increased usage for the 4S, which just happens to support a faster download standard on AT&T's network. Our sister site Engadget helped put that study in perspective by pointing out that Arieso has a vested interest in the results of the research. We've asked for a full copy of the report to see what, if any, linkage there is between Siri and data volume.

[Ars Technica did a round of testing when the iPhone 4S came out, and the results showed that an average Siri user might add just 10MB of data consumption per month due to voice queries. Considering that the high-end AT&T data plan provides two gigabytes of traffic, that 10MB would represent only 0.5% of the full allocation, or 1% of a half-used allowance -- unlikely in the extreme to result in a doubling of data usage. –Ed.]

If we take the study at face value, though, why more data on the 4S? The likely answer hasn't much to do with Siri and a lot more to do with the profile of the iPhone 4S buyer.

The people who buy the latest phone are also the power users who take the most advantage of their devices. We've seen that happen before with new technology, and once people stop amazing themselves and their friends, the consumption of bandwidth drops off. I haven't seen any convincing data that says the iPhone 4S inherently uses more data than an iPhone 4, and iOS 5 iCloud features, also available on the iPhone 4 and 3GS, probably play a role in increased bandwidth use.