The launch of video capability on Instagram and Snapchat has been an important factor in the explosion of data usage in 2013, a tech columnist has noted.
Writing for brightsideofnews.com, Anshel Sag accepted that the launch of 4G devices and products with larger displays has been important, but also highlighted how video plays a part.
Both Instagram and Snapchat are primarily image-based networks, yet this year they unveiled the opportunity to share videos and comment on them. Mr Sag pointed out that hundreds of megabytes of data per day can be used if someone uploads, downloads and comments several times.
In his opinion, operators in the US such as Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile are facing a troublesome issue in the shape of mobile data caps, particularly with the way that usage figures have continued to grow – almost doubling in the US alone.
He said: “I would also argue that one of the unspoken factors in the mobile data growth this year is also the fact that many of us have more apps on our devices than ever before and the good developers are doing good jobs of updating their apps. Sometimes, these updates end up while we’re not at home and one can easily burn up a few hundred megabytes a month from this alone.”
For people who are worried about their data usage, a new app reported on by engadget.com could be of use: Know My App tells users how much data popular mobile apps use up.
