It's time for Green Mobile Data initiative

After bad experience with blocking my Nexus S by Vodafone due to high data roaming costs I closely started to monitor the data usage on my smartphones.
3G Watchdog application installed on my Nexus S and Samsung Galaxy gave me a good view on data usage per application. I also found out that even when you do not use your phone for the whole day running in a background applications still generate a significant data traffic.
One of the most data hungry application is Google Navigation which I have on both of my Android phones.
It counts for ca. 5MB data traffic a day during home office drive. It is a lot of data considering that my Nexus S was blocked after using just 7.5Mb for which I was charged 55 Euro (ca 75 USD) !. It is also a lot of data considering the recently introduced data plans by mobile operators in The Netherlands starting with 100MB a month.
According to Nielsen research Android users in the U.S. consume ca 20% more data than iOS users (582 MB versus 492 MB). Android platform does nothing to make users aware of large data consumption. iPhone iOS has at least a system parameter Mobile Network Data showing total ammount of data traffic.
Users of Android phones are advised to install data monitoring applications as 3G Watchdog. The success of 3G Watchdog application (1,000,000+ downloads !) shows urgency of the high data usage problem.
Google responded to it by introducing a new data usage application as a part of Android Ice Cream Sandwich which will be delivered with the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus in December.  According to the official Google blog
 "Ice Cream Sandwich gives you complete control over the amount of mobile data you use by helping you better understand and manage it".
I believe that it is time that both smartphone and application designers are encouraged  to follow the principle of minimum data usage while delivering the same functionality and customer experience.
Google navigation in off line mode, using smart caching or “traffic information only” mode would reduce the data traffic at last 10 times.
It is time for introducing data usage labels comparable with eco labels in automotive industry.
Android and iOS platform designers need to think how to contribute to lower data traffic and equip the platforms with features helping the smartphone users to reduce data consumption like BMW auto start stop function which turns off the engine at traffic lights to reduce fuel consumption.

Data traffic is directly linked to energy consumption both on smartphone side as telco operators.
In my view introducing Green Mobile Data labels will dramatically reduce the smartphones data traffic and eventually save lots of energy. Otherwise data tsunami due to growing cloud popularity is inevitable.
It’s time that smartphone users realize that they can contribute to lower energy consumption and the future sustainability by lower data consumption. The Green Mobile Data initiative supported by smartphone industry and application developers will help consumers to make a right smartphone choice.
I am looking for a new car at the moment and one of the characteristics I am looking for is a green energy label. I hope I can do the same choosing my next smartphone and the future applications.
For now,also from the data usage perspective,  iPhone is my preferred choice.

We keep iPhone 4S today 20th October till 15:00 for you reserved

This was SMS I received today from T-Mobile, one day before the start of iPhone 4S presale and a week before iPhone 4S launch on 28th October in The Netherlands
It was very tempting to take advantage of T-Mobile offer and be  one of the first iPhone 4S users in the Netherlands. However I and my whole family decided already to wait for iPhone 5!
My daughter Karolina traveling with Semester at Sea around the World sent me already a reminder to stop her T-Mobile subscription before her return late December to be ready for iPhone 5 introduction.
I liked T-Mobile initiative to reward loyal T-mobile iPhone customers by giving them opportunity to get new iPhone model one week before  iPhone 4S launch in the Netherlands.
I count on having the same opportunity for iPhone 5, hopefully, beginning the next year.