Seven in 10 U.S. smartphone users stream at least one short video clip a day, one illustration of how multi-functional smartphones and mobile apps are leading them to use their devices in new ways.
Voice calls and texting remain the leading uses for smartphones, but 8 in 10 survey respondents use their mobile devices to access social networking apps once a day or more. Thirty-five percent spend an hour a day or more using social messaging apps, Parks Associates highlights in ¨360 View: Mobility & the App Economy,¨ which was released January 14.
“Consumer appetite for mobile data is very strong, but currently most subscribers use less than half of their allotted data, while those with high data plans use even less,” Parks’ director for health and mobile product research Harry Wang was quoted in a press release.
Smartphone Video Streamers
Parks also found that more than 20 percent of smartphone users spend more than half an hour a day streaming video clips. More than 4 in 10 watch long streaming videos (movies, complete TV shows) daily. Most spend more than 30 minutes a day doing so.
Mobile network operators will continue exploring new ways to attract mobile data subscribers, Parks adds. AT&T, for example, just offered an unlimited mobile data offer for wireless customers who subscribe to the company’s DirecTV video service.
Sharing bandwidth across multiple devices – data sharing – continues to play a large role in mobile app usage, Parks points out. About half of U.S. smartphone owners with a limited data plan do so. Nearly 9 in 10 (87 percent) share data among smartphones.
Persuading consumers to sign up for bigger data plans has its limits, however, Wang noted. ¨More and more consumers will start to compare payment to data usage and discover that they are eating a small portion but paying the price of a family-sized meal,” he commented.
Image courtesy of flickr user Kirill Kniazev.
