Wi-Fi usage on smartphones growing, tablets replacing TVs

Smartphone owners may be getting ready for all carriers to switch to tiered data plans like Verizon, as the June report from Millenial Media indicates. Wi-Fi usage on smartphones showed an 8 percent growth over the previous month for getting online while mobile. A new study segment that tracks how tablet usage impacts existing activities for owners shows that a full 19 percent of tablet owners report they watch less TV than before getting the tablet.

Apple is still the number one smartphone in Millenial Media's report with over 30 percent of the impression share and Samsung retains the second position with 14.94 percent of impressions served to phones from that vendor. RIM is number three and HTC owns the number four spot. The only surprising number in this month's reports is that Samsung's Nexus S moved into the fourth position on the top 20 list, taking the second most popular spot on the list of Android handsets.

This month's report from Millenial includes a new segment that follows tablet owners and how buying one impacts behavior. Analysts have been claiming that tablet purchases impact PC purchases, so this study of tablet owners is particularly interesting. Nearly a third of tablet owners admit that they have shifted some common online activities from other devices to the tablet. They also admit that in addition to replacing an eReader, for 19 percent of them the tablet sees them watching less TV than they did before getting the tablet. These slates may be having a greater impact on user behavior than previously thought.