Data now accounts for 43 per cent of the US mobile industry service revenues, according to the Q3 report from Chetan Sharma Consulting.

The mobile data market grew by three per cent quarter-on-quarter, and 17 per cent year-on-year, reaching a total $19.9bn (£12.5bn) for Q3, 2012. According to Chetan Sharma, that puts it on-course to hit the analysts initial estimate of $80bn for the whole year.

Thats good news for operators, especially in light of the decline in messaging. Both the the number of SMS messages sent, and the total messaging revenue, dropped for the first time during Q3. Chetan Sharma suggests that messaging might have now seen its peak, which the analyst puts down to the growth of OTT messaging apps – but also says its a natural result of the market segment reaching the 70-90 per cent penetration mark.

Apple v Samsung

Smartphones accounted for over 75 per cent of the devices sold in Q3. Samsung maintained its position as the top OEM in terms of units shipped during the period, globally as well as in the US, but Apple dominates in terms of device profits. It has only 6 per cent of the global unit shipment share, but a profit share of over 70 per cent.

Connected Devices

The global number of connected devices has crossed the 10bn mark, meaning there are 1.3 devices to every human. 70 per cent of the connected devices use some form of wireless connection – rising to 80 per cent in the US.

On average in the US, there were five devices per household, with six per cent having 15 or more. The highest number of devices per household was in the north east region of the US, and the 65+ age demographic had the the highest number of devices, followed by the 18-24 age group.