Data usage for wireless phones are of great interest to consumers as more wireless companies are either switching over to tied data plans or at least thinking about it. Now a new report from Nielsen claims that if you own a phone based on Google's Android operating system, you actually consume more data per month than any other smartphone.
The report says that for the first quarter of 2011, Android-based phones used 582 MB of data each month. That's compared to just 492 MB of data a month for Apple's iPhone and 448 MB of data for phones based on the webOS platform. Windows-based mobile phones only used 174 MB of data a month while Blackberry-based phones used a tiny 127 MB of data a month.
While the study doesn't explain why Android-based phones have higher data consumption, GigaOM does speculate on the issue. One reason might be that big software updates for Apple's iPhone are handled via a wired connection to a PC or Mac via iTunes while Google handles Android updates wirelessly. Also, Apple requires that apps for the iPhone that are bigger than 20 MB be downloaded via WiFi rather than a 3G connection.
Nielsen's report claims that 36 percent of all smartphone owners use an Android-based phone followed by 26 percent for iPhone users and 23 percent for owners of RIM-based phones. Windows Mobile came in at 9 percent, followed by the webOS and Symbian-based phones at 2 percent each. Phones based on Windows Phone 7 and the Palm OS came in at 1 percent each, according to the study.
Image via Nielsen
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