Vodafone data reveals what we are using our phones for

If you think the mobile phone is all about phoning, you would be wrong.

One of the fastest growing segments in the mobile industry, the smartphone market, shows that people are increasingly using their phones to access data, which means browsing the web, playing games, accessing their email and engaging in social networking activities.

At the Nokia World 2010 in London on Tuesday, Chief Executive Vodafone Group Vittorio Colao basically re-affirmed what we all know when he said he believes that “data is the great opportunity”.

“In my own personal market research, what I have seen is normal people booking cars from the beach on their personal mobile devices. People booking tables at a restaurant… normal people at normal restaurants. [They are] checking maps, reading news, wind forcasts for wind surfing. We’re not talking anymore about the high end, we’re talking about real life…” he said.

Colao revealed a snapshot of a month’s worth of data useage from the Vodafone Group, which shows what people are doing when accessing the internet via their phone: