Nielsen: Smartphone data usage up 89%, cost per MB down 46%

Smartphone data usage among U.S. consumers is up 89 percent year-over-year according to research firm Nielsen, which notes that Android and iPhone owners are leading the data consumption charge.

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Thirty-seven percent of all U.S. mobile subscribers now own smartphones. Between the first quarter of 2010 and first quarter of 2011, the amount of data consumed by the average user has increased from 230 MB to 435 MB. In the top 10 percent of smartphone users, data consumption is up 109 percent year-over-year, and in the top 1 percent, consumption has surged 155 percent, leaping from 1.8GB in the first quarter of 2010 to over 4.6GB in the first quarter of 2011. The average Android device owner leads all other American smartphone users, consuming 582 MB of data each month; iPhone owners are next at 492 MB.

The explosion of smartphone data usage corresponds with a decline in average cost per unit of data consumed, Nielsen adds. Although most subscribers are still paying roughly the same amount for data as they did a year ago, the average smartphone user now pays 8 cents per MB, down from 14 cents per MB in first quarter 2010--a 46 percent year-over-year drop. Since the third quarter of 2010, average cost per MB has decreased 1 cent with each successive quarter.

For more:
- read this NielsenWire blog entry

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