Nielson released some new information regarding how smartphone data usage has changed in the past year and it shows that usage has gone up even though prices haven’t.
It’s no doubt that the amount of smartphones in the market has increased dramatically and this is all thanks to the growth of Android and the iPhone 4 being available on the two largest U.S. carriers. Accordingly, the mobile data usage is going up along with the “smartphone boom,” but Nielson’s report says prices are actually dropping.
This report included millions of Americans because the percentage of them that are currently walking around with smartphones in their pocket has now reached 37% percent of all mobile phone users. Usage for mobile data is up by an astonishing 89 percent from last year and people are now using 435 MB of data on average on a monthly basis. With this growth, Nielson said carriers have yet to increase prices accordingly and that means there’s technically been a 50 percent percent drop in cost per unit.
That’s going to change soon, though. Verizon is rumored to be pushing its tied data plan into effect July 7, with the cheapest service being $30 a month for 2GB of data. This is a new high and it makes AT&T’s plan of $25 a month for 2 GB look cheap. It seems like we can expect more of this to happen with the growth in the smartphone industry.
With major phones coming to the market every few months, there’s no doubt why usage is up. Carriers’ towers are being used more than ever to transfer information and text messages, so a price increase seems necessary to keep up with demand. That doesn’t mean we have to like it.
[Via: TUAW]