Smartphones not tablets biggest data users

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NEWBURY, England, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Smartphone users in Europe consume more data than tablet owners with Samsung's Galaxy S3 and the iPhone 5 leading the way, a study found.

Mobile network analytics firm Arieso said the owners of Galaxy S3 phones took first place in terms of the amount of data uploaded, with the iPhone 5 in third place in the amount of photos, videos and other files uploaded, CNET reported Monday.

Second place was one of just three tablets in the Top 10 of data users, the Galaxy Note 2.

Of that Top 10 of consumers of data, six were smartphones, 3 were tablets, and 1 was considered a "phablet," Arieso said.

"This is pretty counterintuitive, but it seems the capabilities of the newest smartphones -- not tablets -- are unleashing even greater user demand," Arieso's Michael Flanagan said in a statement.

"Regardless of device type and operating system, there is very little variation in the usage 'signature' between smartphone users and between tablet users. From this we discover that voice-capable 'phablets' -- like the Samsung Galaxy Note II -- are currently being used like smartphones, not tablets."

A small percentage of smartphone and tablet owners are responsible for the great majority of data used, Arieso said, with just 1 percent downloading 40 percent of the data from the European carrier studied.

While the study focused on just one carrier, Arieso said it considers the findings applicable to other markets, as data consumption has been found to be relatively constant across different regions.