Data traffic rising along with tablet use

In case you hadn't noticed, tablets are big. Apple sold 55 million iPads by the end of 2011, and Amazon sold 5.5 million Kindle Fires in their first quarter. According to research firm Forrester, one-third of all U.S. adults - some 112 million - will own tablets by 2016.

This staggering growth is putting pressure on wireless and wired broadband carriers as well. According to Bytemobile's Mobile Analytics Report for May 2012, tablet users process three times the data volume as do smartphone owners. For instance, "Apple iPad subscribers browse 33 web pages per session, generating 160% more data than the browsing of iPhone subscribers."

This means that present networks are, or soon will be, inadequate. According to Bytemobile CEO Chris Koopmans, "Our latest Mobile Analytics Report further validates the need for mobile network operators to take a proactive approach to measuring and managing escalating data traffic." In other words, more build-out.

US Consumer Tablet Forecast Update, 2011 To 2016 (Forrester research, Mar. 06, 2012)

Bytemobile: Tablets Drive 3x More Mobile Data Traffic, 160% More Mobile Web Usage per Session than Smartphones (Bytemobile news release, May 15, 2012)