The median smart phone user data consumption has increased from 40 MBytes per month to 137 MBytes a month, an increase of 350 percent, says Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics.
You might argue that mobile data plan prices will have to be adjusted as consumption continues to grow. But carriers also are becoming more experienced with actual smartphone user behavior, and often can raise or lower prices to create tiers of service that match different end user requirements.
AT&T, for example, in June 2010 changed its data pricing model from unlimited to a tiered usage model while lowering prices. But the change also means most users can spend just $15 instead of $30 a month, and affectred about one percent of their smartphone customer base, says Entner.
Todaym, about two percent of AT&T customers are affected by the 2 Gbyte cap. Recall that the typical user only consumes 40 Mbytes to 137 Mbytes a month.
Sprint, with some of the lower prices for unlimited usage plans, has adjusted in another way. It has added $10 to the monthly fee, but left plans unlimited. The point is that with greater understanding of how smartphone users behave, carriers now are starting to reconfigure retail pricing plans to offer 98 percent of customers the value of capped plans for lower pricess, or the security of actual unlimited plans for slightly higher prices.
