Following the decision of mobile  provider O2 to place a cap on data limits for new smart phone subscribers there has been speculation over whether this could affect sales of smart phones in the UK.

It was recently announced by the UK mobile network provider O2 that it was joining rival network providers in capping the data limits offered on its packages for smart phone users. Whilst the data limits offered are still generous and will be more than enough for most users according to O2 the fact that unlimited data is no longer available could put some smart phone users off.

Following the announcement by O2 reports have speculated over whether the decision and the lack of unlimited data plans for smart phone users will put people off from getting smart phones, thus having an adverse effect on the smart phone market.

However, officials believe that it is highly unlikely that the smart phone market will take a knock back even though network operators have taken away these unlimited data plans, particularly with newer and better smart phones such as the Apple iPhone 4 and other high end models from different manufacturers hitting the shelves.

Another factor that officials believe will mean that the smart phone market will not suffer is the fact that consumers tend to use up to just 500MB of data each month. For O2 the number of smart phone users that use 500MB or below is said to be ninety seven percent, and therefore it is the tiny fraction of heavy users that gobble up data that are being targeted by the changes.

Source – IT Proportal