Verizon smartphones consume 25% more data than iPhones, according to study

[wuyanks]

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Both AT&T and Verizon have recently been expressing woes that their smartphone users consume too much data. As such, AT&T has already imposed tiered-data plans to its 3G customers. And many ultimately believe that by the time LTE rolls out (mid-November is our best guess), Verizon will do just the same. So how much data are Verizon and AT&T customers really consuming? Is it such an outlandish figure that would eventually bring these networks to their knees? And finally, how does Verizon smartphone customers compare to iPhone users in data consumption?

Validas, an independent research firm, tackled these questions in their latest survey of the four major carriers. Between 2009 and 2010, the amount of data users went up from 42% to 53%. Also, the average data usage went up from 96.8 MB to 145.8 MB. Verizon Wireless customers showed the largest percentage increase in data usage, from 48.2MB to 147.2 MB per user. And the amount of data users increased from 33.4% to 42.9%. On the other hand, AT&T led the four major carriers with 71% of users consuming data, up from 58.4% last year; the average AT&T user consumed 149.6 MB per month.

So that's for all phones in general. What about smartphones, specifically? Validas discovered that Verizon smartphone users on average "are consuming more wireless data than AT&T iPhones by a ratio of roughly 1.25:1." Real world values have the average Verizon smartphone user consuming 421 MB, as opposed to iPhone users averaging 338 MB, per month. Also, "nearly twice as many Verizon Wireless smartphone users are consuming 500MB to 1GB per month compared to AT&T iPhone users." Verizon, are you really crying over the fact that the average user consumes 421 MB per month? Give me a break.

So, in conclusion, Verizon Wireless smartphone users consume 25% more data on average than their iPhone counterparts. What does this signify? AT&T users rely more on WiFi because of reception issues? Verizon users tend to stream media more often? We can't say for sure. What we can say, that Verizon Wireless will surely use figures such as these to validate a move to tiered data pricing.

via Engadget
source Validas

Image courtesy of Mobile Tech World

 

[validoption]

But that is averaging ALL verizon smartphones against ONE competitor...i'm no math whiz, but that's like tallying the gas consumption for KIA owners and setting it against the average gas consumption of everyone who owns a GM brand car. Skewed.

Sent from my DROIDX

 

[wuyanks]

But that is averaging ALL verizon smartphones against ONE competitor...i'm no math whiz, but that's like tallying the gas consumption for KIA owners and setting it against the average gas consumption of everyone who owns a GM brand car. Skewed.

Sent from my DROIDX

it's still an average, per user. i don't get your point.

 

[WoZzY]

Well is it are fault as verizon Customers we have better service/signal strength to atat

 

[validoption]

But that is averaging ALL verizon smartphones against ONE competitor...i'm no math whiz, but that's like tallying the gas consumption for KIA owners and setting it against the average gas consumption of everyone who owns a GM brand car. Skewed.

Sent from my DROIDX

it's still an average, per user. i don't get your point.

Yes, it's an average per user. What i am saying is that the averages for each company are not comparable unless the sample bases are equivalent in number. That is one of many reasons why statistics are misleading.

Sent from my DROIDX

 

[brando56894]

I'd say a decent amount of the data usage comes from the rooting community by downloading roms that are about 60-100mb a piece, looking at websites that have flash animations and tethering...

 

[pastorbob]

I'd say a decent amount of the data usage comes from the rooting community by downloading roms that are about 60-100mb a piece, looking at websites that have flash animations and tethering...

yep, i was at around 2gb's last month. a lot of that was different roms, and tethering.... But then again when i was on att with my iphone 3g i was using 4gb's a month (i didnt have internet at the time so i tethered almost exclusively)

 

[kaiyel1]

This is not hard to figure out. All these smartphones are connected to the interweb! Consistently people are checking emails, looking at video stuff and downloading whatever. Just what did these companies expect from web based phones?

 

[kaiyel1]

Also iPhone is AT&T only damn phone worth using. VZW has multiple Droids all being used. That right there is the 25%.

 

[drtnsnw]

I'd say a decent amount of the data usage comes from the rooting community by downloading roms that are about 60-100mb a piece, looking at websites that have flash animations and tethering...

I don't think that the number of people that root and teather bandwidth is really significant. I was at a boyt Scout meeting wednesday and all us parents were all looking at each others new smartphones. 2 new Droids, my Dinc, one iPhone 3Gs and some unit running winmo 6.1. I garentee none of them had rooted phones, let alone knew anything about rooting or jailbraking. I just don't think there is a large enough community to put a load on there system.


Chris

 

[BayouFlyFisher]

You need to look at Validas too. They offer a service to reduce cell phone bills. As usual with these "independent research groups", they aren't. They are trying to sell something. I don't believe a word of what they say.

 

[kodiak799]

The wifi is a good point, though. I use wifi at home and would probably see my data go up a fair amount if I used more 3G.

And I always d/l roms and kernels to my computer (do most of my browsing there) and transfer to Droid via wireless to flash. But, yeah, I probably flashed 10 roms this month so that would have been like a gig of data.

And if my next phone has HDMI out and can sync with a bluetooth keyboard? Might be goodbye home broadband and just hook up a 21" screen for my browsing.

 

[infinity8x3]

One reason may be because iPhone gets one ota update a year when android updates significantly more and there are more versions of phones to push the updates to. Like x just got an update. But at&t really only has 1 phone.

 

[kodiak799]

It's all still peanuts....Everyone made a fuss about AT&T limiting to 2 GB, and there's the average smartphone at like 450megs.

 

[MarkO]

VW has been going absolutely nuts increasing data capacity. You really couldn't have asked for a better time than now for 4G.

I personally believe iPhone users would like to consume data at the same rate (or higher) than us Droiders, but they do have less coverage, AND more capacity issues which no doubt keep their numbers lower.