A report by mobile Wi-Fi hotspots provider JiWire reveals some holiday Android statistics from its various locations, ranging from Dec. 25^th to Dec. 31^st.  According to the data points provided by the company the amount of Android users in public Wi-Fi hotspots was up by 47.9% post-holiday, and the top Android locations the day after Christmas were Denver, Boston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

Android use and mobile access are both on the rise. These two areas are gaining more and more relevance. With the evolution of mobile and on-the-go access via public Wi-Fi, Android users are taking on a bigger and bigger segment of the market, which means this demographic is something advertisers should take into consideration this coming year.

At CES we saw a reflection of anticipated growth around Android, with a number of smartphone releases and tablet plans announced at the Las Vegas event.  The interesting point here is of course the growth of tablet use, which will be a large determining factor for mobile advertising campaigns.  Tablet screens offer more digital real estate, and the use cases for tablets are more widespread and decidedly different than the smartphone’s.

On-the-go internet access is a growing phenomenon,  and even if users are required to pay for checking their e-mails at certain airports, WiFi represents a very evident appeal for prospective costumers.  This phenomenon is an area where JiWire offers some insight, especially during busy holiday travel.  With faster networks becoming more readily available, hotspots have become a commodity all their own.

In our previous holiday season coverage of JiWire, we discussed a report by the hotspot provider highlighting public Wi-Fi growth internationally. The U.S was no. 1 at the list with  93k public Wi-Fi locations and a 22.9% growth rate followed by China with 40k locations and less than 1% growth. The report also covered free vs. paid public WiFi usage – free public WiFi  has a 4% lead over paid WiFi in the U.S, while internationally, paid hotspots’ domain extends to 73%.