Smartphone data usage jumps 89% in the U.S., Android users still biggest gluttons

By on Jun 17, 2011 at 2:11 PM
mobile June 17, 2011

The Nielsen Company on Friday released its latest findings regarding smartphone data usage and as expected, data consumption continued to increase at an explosive pace in the first quarter of 2011. In the same quarter last year, the average smartphone user consumed 230MB of data on their device each month. Last quarter, that number shot up 89% to 435MB. The heaviest data users are responsible for the bulk of the growth, with average data usage among the top 10% of smartphone owners having grown 155% from 1.8GB to 4.6GB on average each month. Lucky for them, the average cost per megabyte of smartphone data has dropped 46% over the same period, from $0.14 in the first quarter of 2010 to $0.08 last quarter. Android users remain the most data hungry, averaging 582MB each month, and iPhone users followed closely behind last quarter, using 492MB of data each month on average. Windows Phone 7, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry users round out the top-5, consuming 317MB, 174MB and 127MB on average each month, respectively. Some additional data from Nielsen’s report can be seen after the break.

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  • Anonymous

    i gets my data on…

  • Anonymous

    It’s only a matter of months before people on metered plans start getting hit hard with overage charges, especially when Verizon goes metered.

    • Anonymous

      You got that right! It’s unlimited or bust!

  • Anonymous

    Damn AT&T data cap has me very cautious with my data usage. I miss my unlimited data that my wife now has since I gave her my line and took hers.

    • Anonymous

      Even if people hate the T-Mobile throttling, never have to worry about overages there.

      • Anonymous

        Or Sprint. True unlimited data.

  • Anonymous

    Here, Here:

    • Anonymous

      Hi dickhead! I know u see these. U click the like button for anyone saying anything negative towards me. Lmao. Ur Kinda pathetic. True story.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GP2WYAHXS6CRUREISWBGPUSUGE Michael

    The avg. smart phone user only uses ~430Mb per month?!?!?!

    i call shenanigans

    • Anonymous

      they implemented the data caps for the small percentage of users who abused the unlimited data.  but i thought of myself as a pretty moderate user and was surprised i was only using about 650mb a month on average and taking an unofficial survey around the office those numbers seem to line up what i saw from people around the office.

      • Rome

        “abused unlimited data” thats like going to an all you can eat buffet and they cut you off after your second plate, how do you abuse something thats unlimited :S

      • Anonymous

        Get real, you tether your phone illegally where a laptop can download a 660mb iPhone software file in 6 minutes, while simultaneously grabbing a 5gb beta of windows 8 off a torrent site. Things you could never do with a smartphone. It’s being capped because these assbags thing this shit is free. Unlimited would still be unlimited if it didn’t get taken advantage of. I still have 100% unlimited iPhone data grandfathered with AT&T. I use about 500-600mb a month.

      • Anonymous

        @PewterTSI:disqus “… you tether your phone illegally…”

        It isn’t illegal to tether your phone.  It may be in violation of your contract, but contracts are not laws.

        That doesn’t necessarily mean it is morally OK.

  • http://twitter.com/rkein87 Rob Kein

    Anyone else surprised by how high WP7 is?

    • Anonymous

      Maybe you should try using WP7, I’m actually surprised it’s so low.

    • Anonymous

      Interesting part is that most of that WP7 data usage is when the phone is not being used by it’s owner.

      • Anonymous

        Where do you see that? My WP7 doesn’t use that much data when sleeping. It turns wifi off, so i would see the usage on my bill.

        But i’m also surprised to see this since the windows marketplace doesn’t let you download anything over 20MB via 3G. PC/Wifi is required.

        But i guess that’s the only reason it’s not on par with ios and android. Browsing on wp7 is a very pleasant experience, the best i’ve ever used.

        I imagine once Bing maps is added (turn by turn navigation), and more apps are released the usage will go up.

      • Anonymous

        When you got uour lobotomy did they ‘accidently’ cut through hour humour gland also? Lighten up! Wp7 can fight its own battles

  • Anonymous

    The numbers are low only because open wifi areas are pretty much everywhere now. If it wasn’t for that, those numbers would probably be doubled or even tripled.

  • http://www.droiddoes.com/ iNorm

    OH YEAH BABY DROID FTMFW!!!!!!!!!! Suck it crApple!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Anonymous

      If you could actually read you’d know that apple has been using a lot of data compression algorithms in the last few releases of the software. And, this is across 3 platforms on 2 US carriers. Android has hundreds on every carrier.

  • Scott

    I wouldn’t say I abuse my unlimited data on AT&T, but I’m sure not afraid to use it. My usage has gone up. I used to be 3-4Gb per month, but my last 3 months I’ve been hitting 10-14Gb and that is with little to no tethering, that’s all right from the phone. Due to all the streaming services I use, it really eats up the bandwidth. There’s no way I could ever be on a 2Gb plan. 

    • Anonymous

      I can guarantee AT&T sees 10-14gb a month excessive. Is all of that shit really necessary? It’s an fn cell phone. Not a goddam radio station.

      • Anonymous

        yeah some of us stream radio from our phones faggit and use our phones to the fullest capabilities they have

      • Anonymous

        Youre still helping fuck it up for everyone else. Faggot, lol nice one. 

      • http://www.facebook.com/JohnOConnor619 John O’Connor

        I don’t see 10gbs as excessive but than again I’m with Sprint, and utilize streaming services, netflix, hbo go, blockbuster, sprint tv, youtube.  also video chat with qik, yahoo! messenger and skype.  In addition to that, I have 3 synced email accounts and regularly use it to read receive and open work emails that may have 50mbs in attachment. In a data intensive world, unlimited just makes more sense.

  • Anonymous

    Please don’t use words like glutton in the tittle. I believe it’s pretty normal to use a lot of data these days. The REAL gluttons are the telcos.

    (469) 296-7605. <—- Text Me!!

    • Anonymous

      No, using $GB or more data a month isa GLUTTON!!

      But I agree, the Cell companies are ripping us off. Now we are getting caps on home services because of a few gluttons!

      • Anonymous

        Is it really if you’re paying for it? If they don’t want people to go above a predetermined amount then they should cap it or charge more for it. Some of us want to use our mobile data lines as our main connection to the web! Why should I have to wait to get home to download what/when/how much I want? The future of cable-net is going the way of landlines.

  • Anonymous

    And everyone blames/ed the iPhone for bandwidth hogging! Its them damn Andriod freaks!!!!

    Now how most users use more than 3-4GB a month without tethering is beyond me. There are enough wi-fi spots for you data hogs too leech off and get a router for your house!!!

    Stop screwing up things for us normal users, LOL!

    I am glad I have a unlimited plan on my iPhone with AT&T. I use a LOT of data a month, but its mainly wi-fi. At home its always connected and I ALWAYS try to fin wi-fi when out and about. Then again, I have a life and don’t stream HD movies all day to a phone. :rolleyes

    • Scott

      I have a life too, but when you’re at a job 40-50 hours per week, that has no wifi due to security, then it’s easy to use up a lot of date. Between Pandora and streaming ESPN, I’ve seen some pretty high usage on my bill. If I didn’t have unlimited, there’s no way I would do that, but I do, so I can.

    • Anonymous

      their are many different android phones out in the world and one iphone so stfu

    • droidingANDdroiding

      Wifi is limited too shit head. U abusing wifi and we using our phones since we don’t have wifi, what is the d/ce?

  • Anonymous

    That looks like its gonna be pretty cool. Wow.

  • Anonymous

    i just wanna apologize for me using my UNLIMITED data plan for which i pay for

  • Bringit

    Not surprised Android is up there – porn apparently uses a lot of data.

  • http://www.facebook.com/benmarvin Ben Marvin

    Apparently I fit in above the 99th percentile.

  • http://www.facebook.com/JohnOConnor619 John O’Connor

    We (Android Users) are the biggest data gluttons because are phones can do so much.

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