In Q1 2016, the Biggest U.S. Demographic Buying Mobile Data Service Was…Cars

Jennifer van der Kleut

Can you name someone you know who does not own a smartphone? It might be tough. It’s no secret that the U.S. smartphone market is heavily saturated.

When it comes to cellular service and data plans, the biggest piece of the pie when it comes to sales continues to be existing customers-that is, people who are already devoted smart-device customers, but are looking to upgrade to fancier, more high-tech mobile devices with better features, or who are switching providers to get a better deal on their service.

But an interesting new market report indicates that the biggest growth these days is coming from new customers wanting new types of devices-and the most attractive new customer is actually your car, Recode reports.

“In the first quarter, for example, the major carriers actually added more connected cars as new accounts than they did phones,” Recode reported.

In fact, 32 percent of all net-add devices (new devices previously not hooked up to data service) were cars last quarter, indicates industry consultant Chetan Sharma in her U.S. Mobile Market Update report.

Sharma reports that AT&T has been adding the most new connected-car clients, though Verizon remains an undisputed, overall industry leader.

“Verizon’s IoT/Telematics accounted for $195M in Q1 and is likely to cross the $1-billion mark in 2016, making the U.S. the hotbed for ‘Connected Intelligence’ activities, growth, and continued experimentation,” Sharma said.

Sharma reported that Apple dominated the device market in Q1, with a 39-percent share, and Android business rose only slightly, mostly thanks to sales of Samsung devices, while Sony, HTC, LG and some other Android players suffered “deep losses.”

Looking ahead, Sharma predicts the U.S. mobile data traffic to grow by 65 percent in 2016.