Mobile data penetration rates are expected to reach 80 percent by the end of the year, according to Validas research.

The mobile software provider examined data consumption from more than 74,000 consumers? wireless bills for its ?Wireless Data Consumption, Analysis and Trends, 2009 ? 2010? report. The research indicated that the number of mobile owners using data in some form jumped about 15 points, from 35 percent to 50 percent, between the end of 2009 and the midway point of 2010.

?We?ve seen a lifestyle shift, which is continuing to accelerate, where using a mobile device to go online is becoming typical if not preferred,? said Ed Finegold, executive vice president of analytics for Validas, Missouri City, TX. ?If the uptake rate continues on a curve that even remotely resembles what we saw in the fourth quarter of 2009 through the second quarter of 2010, I think we may hit 80 percent penetration for mobile data by the end of the year.

?This tells me that if you?re advertising or selling anything online, you absolutely have to cater to mobile devices and make sure what you offer is easily read and accessed across a range of devices from iPhones, Droids and Evos on the high end, through BlackBerry devices in the middle, down to the more smartphone-like feature phones we?re seeing enter the market now,? he said.

Validas provides consumers, businesses and government agencies with an online wireless-bill management service. It leverages that service to provide wireless bill analysis reports.

Report Findings
Average wireless data consumption across all mobile devices increased 464 percent between the beginning of 2009 and the halfway point of 2010.

Most data consumption occurs on a pay-per-use basis, especially amongst feature phone users.

Consumption by mobile users with data plans still makes up the minority of all wireless data usage.

?I expect to see data plan subscribership to rise in step with smartphone penetration, but since that?s only about 23 percent of the market now, we still have a lot of data growth we?ll see coming from feature phone users doing things like downloads, emails and some simple apps,? Mr. Finegold said.

However, Research In Motion's BlackBerry platform experienced a relatively lower usage bump of 366 percent.

BlackBerry users consume an average of 79.5 megabytes of data per month per user, compared to 375 megabytes for iPhone users ? a gap of nearly 80 percentage points.

Meanwhile, Android users consume an average of 365 megabytes each month.

Mr. Finegold said that BlackBerry?s deficit in data consumption should not be overstated, because part of the reason for its lower figures is the data compression that the platform automatically performs.

?I wasn?t surprised to see that BlackBerry devices consume a lot less data than other kinds of smartphones because of the data compression RIM uses,? Mr. Finegold said. ?I was surprised that when I broke down the user distribution, a behavior pattern similar to that of other smartphones did not emerge.

?In my own personal experience as a BlackBerry user, I find that if a Web site isn?t really optimized for the BlackBerry browser, it is very difficult or unappealing to use with the device ? and I know I?m not alone there,? he said. ?For that reason, I don?t really think of the BlackBerry as a smartphone, [but] an email device with a limited browser.

?Given that it?s currently market share leader in the smartphone world, I think that anyone who wants to grab the online mobile audience needs to consider delivering a site or content that plays nicely with the BlackBerry.?

Will Torch light up the market?
Though RIM is the market share leader for smartphones in the U.S., it has been recently overshadowed by competitors Apple and Google.

Android has ousted BlackBerry as the most widely sold mobile phone platform in the U.S. (see story).

RIM has tried to regain some of its thunder with the announcement of its new BlackBerry Torch smartphone to coincide with the release of the BlackBery 6 operating system (see story).

However, it will take more than just new hardware for BlackBerry to get it?s groove back, per Validas.

?RIM has a long way to go to compete with Apple in terms of a mobile Internet and apps experience,? Mr. Finegold said. ?I don?t think that usability is easy to get right, but if RIMS nails it with its new operating system, it?ll represent a huge leap forward for BlackBerry.

?If what we get is just an incremental improvement, it?ll still be severely lacking in terms of user experience,? he said.

?The reviews I?ve read so far are mixed, and while I credit RIM with continuing to compress data because it puts less of a load on the network, I suspect it necessarily impairs performances, and let?s face it ? user?s want speed and fluidity, and can get it with other devices.?

Final Take
Peter Finocchiaro, editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer, New York