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Larger Phone Screen Means More Data Use
Report: Each Extra Inch Leads to 75 MB More Data Consumed
A new report by OpenSignal investigates just how much bigger screens (increasingly the rage as Android phones get continually larger) impact data usage. According to the firm, each additional square inch of screen area leads to 75 MB of additional data downloaded per month over a cellular connection. Over Wi-Fi, each additional square inch of screen area leads to 288 MB of additional data consumed per month. Specifically, the firm found that the bigger the screen is -- the more likely you are to use it for entertainment or your primary computing device, leading to more data consumption. The study was based on 9,962 data usage patterns collected from 9,962 mobile devices.
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InvalidError
join:2008-02-03

InvalidError

Member

Captain obvious?

Bigger, more powerful and more versatile devices are more likely to get more actual use with more bandwidth-intensive applications? :shock:
ptb42
join:2002-09-30
USA

ptb42

Member

Re: Captain obvious?

said by InvalidError:

Bigger, more powerful and more versatile devices are more likely to get more actual use with more bandwidth-intensive applications? :shock:

In other news:

* Water is wet.
* The Pope is Catholic
* Bears sleep in the woods.

monchis
Premium Member
join:2002-12-09
00000

monchis

Premium Member

Really?

Wonder how much money they spent on this "research"

Sigh, what is the big deal of using so much data. Freaking money hungry business and their caps ;o

Pashune
Caps stifle innovation
Premium Member
join:2006-04-14
Gautier, MS

Pashune

Premium Member

Re: Really?

said by monchis:

Sigh, what is the big deal of using so much data. Freaking money hungry business and their caps ;o

Someone's gotta fund those yachts ya know..

Alternative network management would make too much sense.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

Correlation does not imply causation

And there's no connection here. You give a 50MB/mo user a bigger phone, they still will use 50MB/mo. The correlation is due to the fact that power users who use a lot f bandwidth are also buying the high end phones which, in this case, happen to have giant screens.
InvalidError
join:2008-02-03

1 edit

InvalidError

Member

Re: Correlation does not imply causation

said by BiggA:

And there's no connection here. You give a 50MB/mo user a bigger phone, they still will use 50MB/mo.

You do not need to be a "power user" to appreciate watching streaming videos more on a 5" screen than a 4" screen. Personally, I would not watch video or do much on anything smaller than 7" and my Nexus7 is pretty much the largest screen I can fit in my pockets.

There is also the question of why your 50MB/month user is using only 50MB/month... 50MB in many cases isn't even enough for one Youtube video or one application update... 50MB is little more than a few dozen page views. Someone using less than 50MB/month WiFi+3G/4G is hardly using their smartphone/tablet at all.

Carriers charging $10-20/GB certainly does not help with promoting mobility.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

Re: Correlation does not imply causation

Only the extreme heavy users are streaming over cellular though, other than maybe a short YouTube video, which is fine on a 3.5" phone.

Most people don't use YouTube or update applications on cellular. Applications can wait for Wifi. The user is question does email, maps, and occasional web.

The carriers aren't hurting anything, as even heavy use is well below 2GB/mo, with the exception of streaming radio, but there are ways to control that as well.
InvalidError
join:2008-02-03

InvalidError

Member

Re: Correlation does not imply causation

Do note that the article is about WiFi + cell data, not cell data alone.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT

BiggA

Premium Member

Re: Correlation does not imply causation

Same principle applies.

Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium Member
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL

Maxo

Premium Member

Causality

Did they really show that bigger screens cause users to consume more? Perhaps people with usage habits that tend to consume more data also tend to prefer devices with larger screens.
You would need to give different people phones at random, capture their usage, and then swap phones on them. It may also be useful to ask people before and afterwards what screen size they prefer.

aztr0
join:2007-10-28
Brooklyn, NY

aztr0

Member

Not for me.

The larger the screen, the less I use my data.

I was never a heavy data user, but I was using way more data on my iPhone 4S than the S3 I am using now.

Brainiac
@verizon.net

Brainiac

Anon

Lets just give people what they want...

Just make a 27" tablet/phone and be done with it.

tc1uscg
join:2005-03-09
Gulfport, MS

tc1uscg

Member

It was just yesterday..

It seems just a few years ago that people bad mouthed phones that didn't fit in the shirt pocket. Hip dialing was a phone killer and flip phones were the in and candy bar phones were out. No one wanted a Palm Treo much less the Handspring because it was "too big and bulky). Now look at everyone. Hooked on bigger screens and processors that rival your home PC. Heck, I remember making fun of people with those hand held computers. Now we can't even go to the restroom without it.