Android Data Usage Outpaces iPhone
While AT&T and its iPhone users have been pegged as data hogs, a new study shows Verizon smartphone users consume 25 percent more data than their AT&T counterparts. The rapid growth in data usage by Verizon customers is attributed to the release of Android phones, starting with the Droid last November.
The study was conducted by Validas, a firm specializing in the analysis of phone bills for consumers and business, who looked at 20,000 consumer wireless bills dated between January and May of 2010. It found the average monthly wireless data consumption for Verizon Wireless smartphones is 421 megabytes per month, versus 338 megabytes per month for iPhones, but a closer look at the findings revealed a larger and more significant difference between the two groups.
"The key detail in this study that drives the average is that, by percentage, nearly twice as many Verizon Wireless smartphone users are consuming 500 megabytes to 1 gigabyte per month compared to AT&T iPhone users," Ed Finegold, Executive Vice President-Analytics, for Validas said. More than 11 percent of Verizon Wireless smartphone users fall into this category, versus just 5.6 percent of iPhone users.
According to Validas, the average data consumption rate for Android phone owners on Verizon is more than twice the 200 MB limit, and 4 percent of Verizon smartphones users consume more than 2 GB per month.
But with the growing use of mobile TV and other streaming video, carriers can expect the 2 gigabyte and higher levels of data usage to be reached by more customers in the future.
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