Parks Associates recently did a study on consumer use of mobile data. and what they found is interesting. One of the more notable findings in the study says that 2/3 of Americans don’t want to spend more than $50 for smartphone data plans. On the flip side of the coin, about half of consumers claim they don’t the data average they use per month.
The results from the survey came from a Parks Associates press release. According to Harry Wang, director of Mobile Research at Park Studies, “Operators would benefit by recasting mobile data services as experience-driven in order to reduce price sensitivity, fend off competition, and keep their mobile data revenue engine humming.” They further suggest that carriers should focus less on charging the customers per megabyte and link their offerings to popular web applications in order to maximize revenues instead.
The survey also found that the majority of smartphone users(about 90%) have downloaded apps since purchasing the phone and on average download about two per month. It’s predicted that smart phone users worldwide will spend over $14 million on applications by the end of 2012.
With about four major cell phone carriers on the market including AT&T and Verizon, consumers are spoiled with choice. Although most providers offer many of the same phones and services, people have a choice when it comes to price and service to ensure that they get the better deal.
For instance, AT&T offers DataPlus Pro Plans that start at $20.00 a month for 300 mb and Verizon’s 2GB Data Bundle with email starts at $30.00 a month. If phone carriers lower the cost of data packages, that would be a good thing. The only potential downside to this is that users will probably see some price increase for mobile applications and web services. Let’s just hope that the price hike won’t be too significant.
