Ericsson: Smartphone screen size, age and price impact data consumption

Mobile data traffic doubled from the second quarter of 2010 to the second quarter of 2011, according to measurements released from Ericsson, which is part of Akamai's The State of the Internet report. Ericsson said the mobile data growth patterns showed that the quality of a smartphone impacts which applications people use and the amount of time they spend accessing the Internet. Ericsson said an active smartphone user generate more than 1 MB of traffic per day, and the amount of data a user consumes is impacted by screen size, age and price of the smartphone more than operating system. In North America, high-end smartphones generate twice the traffic than comparable smartphones at the operators analyzed in Asia and Europe. Ericsson also concluded that high-end smartphone users are driving traffic and demand for prioritized services. The top 5 to 10 percent of smartphone users will spend up to 40 minutes a day watching video, while the average user spends about 30 seconds a day watching online video.