Data: US homes use 123% more data per month than Europe
December 22, 2022
Data insights from the Plume Cloud reveal that broadband network performance is improving, the number of cyber threats is growing exponentially, and Google wins the battle of the brands with households adding more connected devices than Apple.
Plume IQ examines the major trends in Plume-powered smart homes in 2022 (November 1st 2021 to November 30th) across the areas of connected device popularity, network performance, cybersecurity, data usage, and brand loyalty:
- Americans love connected devices: The US leads Europe with 31 per cent more devices connected to their home networks.
- Infrastructure is getting better: Networks are improving, and at similar rates, in both the US and Europe with a 24 per cent and 20 per cent increase in Internet download speed respectively.
- Cyberthreats grew exponentially: Possibly a reflection of the situation in Ukraine, global inflation, and economic headwinds the number of threats blocked by Plume was up in both the US and Europe by 162 per cent and 168 per cent respectively.
- Big data: US households consumed 123 per cent more data on average per month than European households (794 GB per month vs 356 GB). The most notable category for increased data consumption was streaming devices (set-top boxes up 9.2 per cent, smart TVs up 13.9 per cent), however, the usage of fitness bikes – the star of 2021 – was down by 40.7 per cent.
- Battle of the brands: Google added more devices than Apple over the period, 16 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. At category-level lifestyle & IoT devices grew faster relative to other device types with smart speakers up 30 per cent, e-readers up 33 per cent, and smart light bulbs up 30 per cent.
“Our latest Plume IQ study reveals how smart homes are evolving,” said David Huynh, Chief Product Officer at Plume. “We’re seeing the benefits of governmental and private network investment with Internet download speeds increasing substantially, and on Plume-powered networks device usage is growing exponentially with significant increases in data consumption, cybersecurity is one area that service providers must prioritise for investment in 2023, as we saw the number of cyber threats blocked increase massively—up 162 per cent in the US and up 167 per cent in Europe.”