Validas study finds Verizon smartphones consuming more data than iPhones
You know how we've good reason to believe that Verizon Wireless is at least mulling the switch to capped / tiered data plans? Yeah. An independent Validas research report has found that, between January and May of this year (pre-AT&T caps), Verizon's stable of smartphones collectively averaged more data consumption per month that Apple's iPhone. Of course, this quite literally compares an Apple to every smartphone on Verizon save for BlackBerries, but given how much squalling we've heard from Ma Bell about this rampant iPhone data usage, we're pleased to see a few facts that spin things the other way. The company's full report is due out in September, but investigation of over 20,000 wireless bills found that VZW smartphones "are consuming more wireless data than AT&T iPhones by a ratio of roughly 1.25:1," with the average Verizon user eating up 421MB per month and the average iPhone user consuming 338MB per month. It also points out that "nearly twice as many Verizon Wireless smartphone users are consuming 500MB to 1GB per month compared to AT&T iPhone users." You learn something new everyday, right?
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Validas Reports Verizon Wireless Smartphones Consume More Data Than iPhones
VZW Smartphones Using 25% More Data on Average than AT&T iPhones
HOUSTON, July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- An ongoing study of wireless data utilization, conducted by Validas, shows that Verizon Wireless Smartphones are consuming more wireless data than AT&T iPhones by a ratio of roughly 1.25:1. Average monthly wireless data consumption for Verizon Wireless Smartphones is 421 megabytes per month, versus 338 megabytes per month for iPhones.
"Averages can be misleading because when you plot data users in a distribution, you quickly see that there is no typical user – they are spread across a broad range," says Ed Finegold, Executive Vice President-Analytics, for Validas. "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," Finegold says. More than 11 percent of VZW Smartphone users fall into this category, versus just 5.6 percent of iPhone users.
Validas also finds that slightly more than 54 percent of VZW Smartphones consume less than 200 MB per month, versus slightly more than 52 percent of iPhones. Nearly 46 percent of VZW Smartphones consume more than 200 MB per month, versus nearly 48 percent of iPhones. But, more than 4 percent of VZW Smartphones consume more than 2 gigabytes per month, as opposed to just 1.6 percent of iPhones. Only 2/10ths of 1 percent of both VZW Smartphones and iPhones use more than 5 GBs per month. Further, a nearly even percentage of users consume no data at all in a given month – 3.4 percent for Verizon Wireless Smartphones versus 2.9 percent for AT&T iPhones.
The data for this analysis was derived from more than 20,000 consumer wireless bills dated between January and May of 2010. "Smartphones" deliberately excludes BlackBerry devices which, due to data compression techniques, do not follow similar data consumption patterns to those of iPhones and other Smartphones.
For more information on and highlights from Validas' forthcoming wireless data consumption study, visit http://blog.myvalidas.com/.
About Validas
Validas® provides consumers, businesses and government agencies with a simple, secure online service that optimizes wireless bills and cuts bottom line costs by an average of 20 to 40 percent. Founded by wireless industry experts, Validas eliminates wireless billing and rate plan confusion to improve customer care for wireless users. The Web-based wireless bill analysis software leverages patent-pending algorithms, processes and PDF scanning capabilities to deliver powerful business intelligence in seconds. For more information visit http://www.validas.com.
