Ever since launch, U.S. iPhones have always been on unlimited cellular data plans. With AT&T discontinuing these however, app developers may have to start adjusting their thinking.
While many international iPhone customers are used to capped data plans, customers in the U.S. are not. Therefore, developers writing apps for U.S. consumers similarly have not had to pay a lot of attention to how much data their apps require to run. A situation that will now have to change, starting by Apple itself:
Cnet.com recently interviewed several developers and posted what their thoughts were on the subject. One developer pointed out that streaming 15 hours of YouTube-quality video would completely deplete a 2Gb data cap. Before you get too concerned about that number, keep in mind that the average YouTube video is 2.7 minutes and the average viewer watches a whole lot less than 333 YouTube videos a month. With the new 5MP still camera and HD video on the iPhone 4, we can only assume users will likely see their data usage increase once they upgrade. Likely FaceTime will work on 3G at some point, which could also cause an increase in data usage. With the increase in data needs from native iPhone apps, it's even more important for the 3rd party apps to use less.
Other than the financial benefit of using a cheaper data plan, there is likely another upside. What developers and analysts don't seem to be taking into consideration is that if apps are updated to use less network data, those apps will also likely run faster and generally be more efficient. Cheaper monthly bills and better-running apps? We can only wait and hope.
