Consumers are using their mobile phones more for data than voice these days.

MAY 13, 2010 • The Cellular Telephone Industries Association (CTIA) reported that data accounted for more traffic on mobile networks than voice for the first time in 2009. CTIA data shows that over the last two years, the average number of voice minutes per user in the United States has dropped. In addition, the average length of a local call was 1.81 minutes in 2009, compared with 2.27 minutes in 2008.

Impact: Although CTIA did not break down how many of these data minutes were devoted to gaming, if the thousands of iPhone games in circulation are any indication, games are driving this change in mobile habits. That’s great news for the Android OS. Google went out on a limb making Android free to implement on mobile devices. Google is all about data products. As more mobile phones shift to data phones, Android has every opportunity to carve out serious market share, which means more opportunities for successful game development.  On the downside, the mobile industry is likely to continue to struggle with bandwidth issues that can make service spotty for popular services when usage is high.