Verizon smartphones use more data than iPhones, study

A forthcoming study from wireless billing vendor Validas examines the effect the proliferation of smartphones has had on wireless data usage. Jim Squires investigates.
Over the past few years, the popularity of smartphones has exploded. More and more people are turning to these all-in-one devices to replace their aging, single-purpose handsets.

The comfort and convenience of being able to surf the web, use apps, and enjoy videos and music has made the smartphone the thing to own in today's wireless age. But with changing devices comes changing needs.

Using information drawn from the bills of customers from four major US wireless carriers, Validas' soon to be released 2009-2010 Wireless Data Consumption Study sheds some light on how data consumption has grown in the last 12 months. The number of wireless customers using data services rose from 42 percent to 53 percent in this time period. The average MB usage per user saw a sharp increase over the last year as well, climbing from 96.8 MB to 145.8 MB.

An obvious culprit for the increase in usage would seem to be the immensely popularity iPhone, but Validas' findings suggest that iPhone users are far from the most ravenous consumers of data.

The average data consumption for smartphones offered by Verizon Wireless – this includes Android, webOS, and Windows Mobile phones - is 421 MB a month. When compared to the iPhone's 338 MB average, that's a sizable difference.

Smartphones aren't the only thing contributing to the increase in data usage over the last year. In addition to the increase in smartphone ownership, the long-tail effect of what Validas' calls "simple feature phones" is contributing to the overall rise in data consumption. An 8 percent growth in aircard usage has also contributed to this increase.

The report, which deliberately excluded Blackberry smartphones because of their ability to compress data, is due to be released in full this September. With companies like AT&T cancelling their unlimited data plans for smartphones, the timing couldn't be more apt.

If data usage continues to rise as it has over the past year, it seems as though it's only a matter of time until the increased operational costs force other wireless providers to follow suit.