1:45 PM – If you’re an Android user, you may see in your usage that you are burning through your monthly data allowance rather quickly. It doesn’t necessary happen for everyone, but there are many that wonder why this happens. A new report from The New York Times may have an answer for you. The report points us to a study done by Ericsson, which tells us that Android smartphones use an average of 2.2GB of data per month. This is significantly more than the 1.7GB per month used by iPhones and the 1.4GB per month used by Windows Phones.
So, we know that Android smartphones use more data, but why? There are several possibilities, but The Times tells us that one reason is due to Android smartphones having larger displays. The iPhone 5 sports a 4-inch display, while the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 sports a 5.7-inch display. When, for example, you are running a video on the Note 3, the screen size is better, requiring the phone to use extra data in order to play on a larger display.
“Android models have a greater variance due to a larger diversity of device models,” writes Ericsson. “In networks where high-end models dominate, average usage on these devices exceeds average iPhone usage. However, when operators focus on the low-end Android segment the average usage is usually lower than for iPhones.”
Chetan Sharma, a telecom analyst and consultant for American wireless carriers, tells The New York Times that Android users don’t get upgrades as often as other software platforms like iOS. Due to this, Android users may miss out on the latest software to help them with data management. Android users may also have more applications running in the background that running tasks like location data more often than on iOS and Windows Phone.
What do you think?
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