Mobile data demand goes up, doubles in the past 12 months

Most people spend a lot of time using their mobile gadgets every day, and that’s a statement easily proven by taking a long, hard look at the people around you. Thanks to technological advancements and rapid developments in the industry, smartphones and tablets nowadays are more powerful than ever. It used to be that people only used mobile phones to make and take calls, send short SMS text messages, and take the occasional VGA-quality photo.

These devices have received massive upgrades through the years to become the gadgets that they are today: sleek and extremely powerful smartphones that can be used to snap high-quality photos, receive and fire off email messages, run various applications, surf the Internet, and so much more. An example of such device is the recently released iPhone 4S, which is Apple’s latest model in their popular line of smartphones.

So it’s no surprise that mobile data demand has shot up because of this. And it’s not just a slight increase, either. A recent report released by Ericsson has found that data demand has actually doubled in the past 12 months. The amount of data a consumer uses or requires per day is highly dependent on his or her device, as Ericsson reported: “In more detail, the mobile data growth patterns reveal that the quality of a smartphone affects which applications people use and the length of time they surf the mobile internet. As defined by Ericsson, an active smartphone user generates more than 1 MB traffic per day.”

The report goes on to list the factors that play a part in mobile traffic: “Factors including screen size, age and price of the smartphone have a stronger correlation with median traffic than OS (iPhone-iOS, Android, Symbian, etc). It is notable that in North America, high-end smartphones generate twice the traffic than comparable smartphones at the operators analyzed in Asia and Europe.”

The report was generated by Ericsson, a firm that supplies hardware and communications systems to mobile phone manufacturers and telecommunications firms. The report points to increase video streaming on mobile devices as one of the main reasons for such an increase: “Ericsson has found that among heavy users, the cumulative data generated by video is significantly higher than for other activities. The top 5 to 10 percent of smartphone users are willing to spend up to 40 minutes a day watching online video. However, the average user spends about 30 seconds a day watching online video.”

Future projects have been announced to improve mobile broadband services in rural areas, such as putting up new mobile masts to get the mobile coverage in the UK up to 99%. A recent deal between Virgin Media Business and Mobile Broadband Network Limited also ensures that millions of mobile users will be able to access data at faster speeds.

Source – Gigaom