Cisco study quantifies mobile data growth
Jinfo Blog

By Nancy Davis Kho

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The latest iteration of the "Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update" was released last week and put some updated metrics around the runaway train that is mobile growth.

The Cisco study finds that global mobile data traffic grew 2.6-fold in 2010, nearly tripling for the third year in a row. To put that figure in perspective, mobile data traffic was over three times greater than total global internet traffic in 2000. Mobile video traffic comprised more than 50% of data sent for the first time in 2010, due perhaps to the improved connection speeds cited by Cisco: average mobile network downstream speed in 2010 was 215 kilobits per second (kbps), up from 101 kbps in 2009.

What's truly noteworthy, however, is that the Cisco study quantifies accelerators that are only going to result in further growth. While the average smartphone data usage doubled in 2010, smartphones still account for only 13% of handsets in use globally. And tablets are just starting to make an impact; the three million tablets connected to the mobile network generated five times more mobile traffic than the average smartphone. Compare that to 94 million laptops connected to the mobile network, which the Cisco study found generate 22 times more traffic than the smartphone; with both the number of tablets and their functionality increasing, the potential for mobile data growth is staggering.

Just where and how that data will be used was highlighted in a story by Ingrid Lunden on PaidContent UK yesterday. She picked up a Gartner study that provides a top-10 list of categories of consumer mobile apps that are likely to be major revenue generators. Broadly speaking, the list can be divided into mobile commerce applications, location-sensitive services, and instant multimedia communications. 

What's missing from the Gartner list? Games. Which is ironic, when the top selling paid apps in the Apple store are Angry Birds, Street Fighter IV, Words with Friends, Angry Birds Seasons and TETRIS. Now that's what you call sticky…at what point will business app vendors experiment with folding gaming capabilities into their cut and dry mobile apps?

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