Smart Phones, Data Revenues, and Actual Use

Increased wireless data use is popping up everywhere.

• India's broadband Internet use is falling while mobile use is increasing (Thanks Experientia)
• US data revenue per user per month (ARPU) highest at $8.90 compared with Western Europe's $7. More interestingly, that represents 43% year-on-year growth for the US. Since this includes triple the 3G subscriptions and continuing rapid growth in SMS traffic, this is NOT just due to the iPhone. (Thanks FierceWireless)
• Mobile phones are rapidly becoming highly used in Africa, both as a shared resource in rural areas and the primary internet access in cities (learn about the African mobile industry)

The above of course doesn't include Korea and Japan, which are regular examples of data revenues.

One thing I'm finding interesting is how you can not map smart phones directly to high data use. I was speaking with a mobilist from Brazil, who said Brazilians typically purchase the most expensive phone they can conceivably afford ... even when those phones cost more than a month's salary. On the other hand, AdMob's recent browser metrics has three of the top five hit generators being smart phones.

It's all very interesting.