While other carriers might finally be dipping their toes in the Android water this month, T-Mobile has been in this game for a long time. They got their first Android phone (the G1) out last October, and managed to launch two more (the myTouch and the CLIQ) within the year. It makes sense, then, that they’re the first to pipe up with some usage details.
T-Mobile today shared a few interesting Android statistics, and announced a number of ways they’d be increasing their support for the Android Market.
All of the details T-Mobile shared involve the T-Mobile myTouch specifically – it is, after all, their flagship Android phone. It would have been nice to get some more general Android usage stats, but we’ll take what we can get:
- Around 50% of myTouch users launch the Market app each day
- 80% of myTouch users launch the browser once a day, and roughly 66% launch it more than once a day
- More than 40% of myTouch users access social sites multiple times each day
- Roughly half of myTouch owners say they have “completely customized” their handsets, though that term seems a bit ambiguous
T-Mobile’s not set on just dumping out the hardware, though. It’s unarguable at this point that the App catalog on any given platform makes or breaks the experience (psst, hey Palm – pay attention), and it seems like T-Mobile realizes this. They’ve announced a handful of ways they’ll be aiming to improve the market for their customers:
- Carrier Billing is coming “soon”, allowing users to charge app purchases back to their phone bill rather than Google Checkout. This is great news for developers – I’d imagine that this streamlining of the purchasing process will cause a huge uptick in sales from T-Mobile customers.
- T-Mobile has recently refreshed their “App Pack” to include a total of 34 T-Mobile suggested apps
- By Thanksgiving, T-Mobile will have a specific section of the Android Market which users can tap into to view a list of T-Mobile’s favorites. This is a feature of the revised Market that came with Android 1.6. The Droid, for example, already has a Verizon channel – but at this time, it’s currently only listing a Verizon-friendly Visual Voicemail app
Now, if only they can get their Network to work.
I hope you don’t mean like AT&T? (ha) – btw: there was no outage at my locale, the Cali people made it sound like the t-mobile network was down US wide. Hint: Cali does not = center of the universe. zing
The message on the T-Mobile support website last night said it was a nation-wide outage. You were just one of the lucky few who was not effected.
dagnabbit, I should have bought a lottery ticket.
It was down in NY for 4 hours as well.
okay, I stand corrected (somewhat). I just don’t like generalizations. Details are good.
Carrier billing can’t arrive too soon – billing on other major app stores (like Apple’s or Nokia’s OVI) is a bitch
Fact check…
“…and managed to launch two more (the myTouch and the CLIQ) before anyone else even had one.”
-The HTC Hero launched on sprints network on October 11, 2009. That is before the CLIQ was available by almost a month.
Holy crap, how did I forget the Hero? I have one of those damn things. Thanks, KJ.
I thought this was only in reference T-Mobile? That’s why you didn’t mention it.
Ok, i don’t like those stats.
I don’t like them because they actually have them..
that means phone reports back what apps are being used….
If i’m getting android phone, one of the things i’ll be doing is either turning that option off or getting a custom rom that disables this.
It doesn’t necessarily mean the phone reports back anything.
T-Mobile is the ISP for data users on its network. They could just analyze their network traffic to see what apps are being used by whom and when. Or they could survey some sampling of their customers and statistically extrapolate from that.
Missing stat: Number of people who rooted phone.
And the total number of people that are included in these statistics.
T-mobile – what you buy when you fail credit and can’t buy a real phone.
I have a Samsung flip-phone that uses the T-Mobile network for 4 years without any problems. So stop with the insults.
maybe in the gutters, but you should not assume that everyone shares your perspective on things.
40% visit social-networking sites? I think there are WAY too many of these smartphone users who are teens or early 20s who didn’t buy the phone with their own money but DADDY’s money.
Well, I don’t know how they are defining social networking – but even though Techcrunch is based on tech news – it has social networking environment – and you are on it. Just about every interactive website is a social networking site.
I’ve never purchased anything over Android but is it really that difficult? I actually wouldn’t want to have it end up in a carrier bill. I have an iPhone, so I have AT&T – and they have screwed up my bill several times. One time they added AAA service to one of my lines, and one time they removed the unlimited family messaging plan that I have. We got credit for both after many hours on the phone. I think this would be HORRIBLE. I don’t know how bad T-Mobile billing/customer service is compared to AT&T but I can’t imagine they are that much better. I would NEVER, ever buy apps if it was left up to the carrier – I would rather leave it up to Google checkout. Granted, I’ve never bought anything on an Android phone, but I have a hard time believing it’s that hard to do…
I have been with t-mobile since back when they were voicestream. Their customer service is far superior to AT&T. Their coverage (here in Denver) is superior as well. AT&T 3G is terrible (I use a blackjack for work/e-mail). As GSM goes: t-mobile is the only alternative to AT&T in the US, which is why I use t-mobile.
Up until a few months ago my girlfriend still had a VoiceStream branded SIMcard in her TMobile phone. When the guys at the TMobile store switched her to a new phone they all had a laugh…passing the card around like an antique.
i still have my v-stream branded card … works like a charm.
I’m actually a little bit concerned by this, how do T-Mobile know what their customers have been doing, have I missed something?
Are they logging their internet traffic, in a phorm (or even less than phorm)-esque kind of way???
If the internet traffic is not too much then…. network will be smooth enough…
http://www.msoft-technologies.com
http://www.msoftwebtemplates.com