The United States is now firmly entrenched as the world’s second largest consumer of mobile data, just behind Swedem, which retains the top spot among all nations.
According to industry analyst Chetan Sharma, the average U.S. mobile data user will consume approximately 675MB of data per month by the end of 2011. This rate of data consumption will be second only to that of Sweden, where users soak up an estimated 760MB of mobile data per month.
The U.S. has already surpassed the Philippines to achieve the highest use of SMS, Network World reported.
U.S. consumers sent and received an average of 664 SMS messages per user, per month, in the second quarter. The Philippines, long the world’s leader in SMS, now has an average of 560 text messages per month.
In the second quarter of 2011, mobile data revenue in the U.S. spiked 5% from the previous quarter and 22% from a year earlier, Sharma added. “At this rate, U.S. mobile operators will be bringing in more revenue from data than from voice by early 2013,” Sharma says.
So, will the U.S. ever surpass Sweden? If smartphone adoption is a leading driver of mobile data consumption, then there’s a an excellent possibility it will.
“Smartphones are much more popular in the U.S. than globally, the report reads, “with 55 percent of all mobile devices sold being smartphones. The worldwide rate is 27 percent.”
