While voice calls and texting still dominate on mobile, social networking is becoming an increasingly popular activity on today's devices. 80% of smartphone owners use social networking apps at least once a day and 35% spend an hour or more on this activity, according to analyst firm Parks Associates. Parks Associates' survey on the usage of mobile devices shows consumers are embracing many new use cases as their smartphones become more intelligent and multifunctional.
According to Park Associates, data sharing continues to play a big role in mobile app usage. Roughly one-half of U.S. smartphone owners with a limited data plan share data between multiple devices, and 87% of them share data among multiple smartphones.
Parks Associates expects mobile operators to continue exploring new and novel strategies to attract mobile data subscribers.
Harry Wang, Director, Health & Mobile Product Research, Parks Associates
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. For mobile operators, pushing consumers to sign up for a bigger data plan will have its limits.
