uTorrent Adds Android, iOS, PS3 and Xbox Integration
With more than 100 million active users a month and a market share of nearly 50 percent, uTorrent is without doubt the most-used BitTorrent client. — Despite the success story that it is, the uTorrent development team hasn't been sitting still in recent years.
Context & Ripple Effects
uTorrent's expansion is the continuation of an arc TorrentFreak has tracked since 2008, when a filesharing report showed explosive growth for the client and the team followed up with version 1.8 and a promised Mac port. Three years later the client claims over 100 million monthly active users and nearly half the BitTorrent client market, and the move to Android, iOS, PS3 and Xbox is the logical next step past the desktop.
The timing matters on two fronts: comScore put Android at 40 percent of U.S. smartphone share in August 2011 with Nielsen ranking it the most data-hungry platform, making it the natural first target — while a patent infringement lawsuit filed against uTorrent and BitTorrent in U.S. District Court in June 2011 hangs over any widening of the franchise.
First-order effects
- BitTorrent's roughly 100 million monthly users gain torrent access on phones and living-room consoles, moving the client's footprint from the PC onto the devices where media is actually consumed.
- Android is the highest-leverage target of the four: with 40 percent U.S. subscriber share per comScore and Nielsen's finding that Android devices consume the most mobile data, uTorrent is plugging into the fastest-growing pool of heavy-data users.
Second-order effects
- Rival BitTorrent clients face pressure to match multi-platform support or cede the mobile-and-console segment to a player already holding close to 50 percent desktop market share.
- Carriers and console makers confront rising P2P traffic originating outside traditional PCs — Android's data appetite plus PS3 and Xbox reach puts torrent traffic on networks and closed platforms that were never designed for it.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the torrent client stops being a desktop utility and becomes a cross-platform media access layer — which raises the stakes of the June 2011 patent suit, since whoever controls the client layer across devices controls how a large share of filesharing reaches its audience.
- Content-industry enforcement follows the user base: as clients spread onto mainstream consumer platforms, expect rights holders to shift attention from trackers and sites toward the client software itself and the platform gatekeepers hosting it.
The trend: BitTorrent clients are evolving from single-purpose desktop programs into cross-platform media access points, riding mobile growth while drawing escalating legal scrutiny.