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LuAnn LaSalle
THE CANADIAN PRESS

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MONTREAL - Most of Canada's iPhone users seem to prefer the multimedia device for talking.

Enlarge Photo

Toshiyuki Aizawa/Bloomberg News

Rogers Wireless says 95 per cent of its iPhone customers used less than 500 megabytes of data, the equivalent of about 110 songs, and 91 per cent of its customers used just 200 megabytes in the first four weeks after it went on sale July 11.

After all of the complaints about the cost of operating the new, faster iPhone, its owners don't appear to be using the smartphone to its fullest for web surfing, sending photos, watching videos or listening to music.

Rogers Wireless (TSX:RCI.B) said Thursday that just 1.2 per cent of users of the touchscreen iPhone ate up more than one gigabyte of data in the first four weeks after it went on sale July 11.

One gigabyte of data would be the equivalent of about 240 songs or downloading a movie on the touchscreen phone.

"They're learning how it can be used," spokeswoman Liz Hamilton said.

Rogers added that 95 per cent of its iPhone customers used less than 500 megabytes of data, the equivalent of about 110 songs, and 91 per cent of its customers used just 200 megabytes.

Rogers is the exclusive Canadian carrier of the 3G iPhone with the only network capable of operating the high-speed smartphone.

Ahead of the phone's launch, angry customers launched an online petition protesting the cost of Rogers' plans and encouraging Apple CEO Steve Jobs to pressure Rogers to slash rates and offer unlimited data plans like those found in the United States.

Rogers responded with a beefed up data plan offer of six gigabytes of data available for $30 a month on a three-year contract for limited time which has been extended until Sept. 30.

While the vast majority have been modest data users, Hamilton said only one iPhone user went over the six-gigabyte data allotment.

"The folks who were first to buy, those are the early adopters, those are the tech savvy ones and what it says is that big data buckets actually let you do a lot of stuff," Hamilton said.

"I think there's a lot of education on all parts about what you get for what data allotment, or data bucket as the industry terms it."

Analyst Carmi Levi said the numbers show that most users aren't taking advantage of all of the iPhone's features.

"They haven't yet tapped into the multimedia-rich capabilities of the device and for the most part they're likely still using it for light web browsing, light email and for the most part voice use," said Levi, senior vice-president of strategic marketing at Toronto's AR Communications Inc.

"They haven't really gotten into the guts of what this thing can do."

The tech-savvy 1.2 per cent of users could be doing things like listening to Internet radio, downloading video and installing software, he said.

"You will always have the vast majority of end users who don't seem to use it a lot because they really are using the device for mundane, everyday purposes. Let's face it for all of the capabilities of today's smartphones the vast majority of us are still using it for voice calls," Levy said.

"Voice remains the killer application for every phone including the super-sophisticated iPhone."

After talking, texting is usually the next popular activity on a cellphone.

The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association says Canadians send 45.3 million text messages a day.

Hamilton said there's still demand for the iPhone and there are more of the phones now available.