Synchronoss charts the velocity of the mobile content explosion – overall amount of content stored grows 55% in last ten months, 16GB smartphones almost full

Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNCR) today reveals the velocity of the global mobile content explosion for the first time. By closely analysing the habits of more than 30 million consumers, combined with an independent study from 451 Research, Synchronoss conservatively estimates that the net amount of content that the ‘average’ consumer creates and stores is increasing by more than 6 per cent each month. This rate of increase will prove too great for the most popular smartphones on the market that boast just 16GB of storage capacity.

The top level findings of Synchronoss’ study, ‘Containing the Content Explosion’ make critical reading for mobile industry executives. In the ten month period between April 2015 and January 2016, Synchronoss tracked the following trends amongst 30 million global users of its Synchronoss’ Personal Cloud platform:

  • The average amount of user content created and stored per subscriber increased by 55%, an average month-on-month increase of more than 6%
  • The average number of videos created and stored per subscriber grew by 62% (average of 14 videos per person increased to 22 per person)
  • The average number of images created and stored per subscriber increased 48% (average of 518 images per person grew to 769 per person)

In addition, independent analysis of US mobile smartphone user behavior by 451 Research, conducted in January 2016, reveals:

  • The average US smartphone user takes up 10.8GB of storage capacity on their device
  • This amount of content is expected to increase by approximately 8% per month (911MB)
  • Photos currently take up 3.6GB on average, videos take up 3.7GB, apps take up 900MB

By combining both 451 Research and proprietary Synchronoss datasets to get an overall view, Synchronoss conservatively estimates the amount of customer content created and stored is increasing at more than 6% per subscriber, per month. At this rate, a typical smartphone with 16GB of capacity (that has 12GB of general capacity for content storage) will be full in less than 2 months from now.

“This exponential rise in mobile content presents huge challenges for carriers in helping consumers manage their valuable personal content,” says Ted Woodbery, VP Marketing and Product Strategy at Synchronoss Technologies. “The mobile industry is on the cusp of several new innovations which will drive heavier content creation at a faster rate. This will quickly outstrip the limited storage capacity remaining on most popular smartphones today.”

Anticipated technology advancements including 4K HD mobile video and audio, advancements in camera capability and faster processing power will all add significant weight to content payloads. According to 451 Research, better content quality and improved device capabilities will accelerate consumer content creation and storage amongst US smartphone users. The biggest catalyst for greater content generation however is the availability of increased storage, either on-device or in the cloud.

Woodbery continues: “If you combine all the factors driving content generation, a historical monthly user content growth rate of around 6% starts to look extremely conservative. No one can accurately predict the likely impact, but monthly double digit growth in content creation and storage per subscriber look all but guaranteed. Deploying white label cloud technology is the only way carriers can deliver the storage elasticity, data backup and restore functionality to maintain a differentiated customer experience.”

This seamless user experience is also a key feature of the Synchronoss Personal Cloud solution, which is used by some of the world’s biggest operators, including AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Orange and SingTel, to provide their subscribers with an own-branded cloud service that automatically backs up, synchronizes and stores all their personal contacts, content and data, for accessing across a range of different devices. Synchronoss Personal Cloud is device and OS-agnostic, and is able to support a broad range of devices, mobile Operating Systems and connectivity types – including 3G, LTE and Wi-Fi.

About Synchronoss Technologies, Inc.

Synchronoss (NASDAQ: SNCR) is the mobile innovation leader that provides personal cloud solutions and software-based activation for connected devices across the globe. The company’s proven and scalable technology solutions allow customers to connect, synchronize and activate connected devices and services that empower enterprises and consumers to live in a connected world. For more information visit us at www.synchronoss.com.

The Synchronoss logo, Synchronoss and Synchronoss Integrated Life are trademarks of Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Synchronoss Technologies, Inc.Media:Stacie Hiras, +1 908-674-0758Stacie.hiras@synchronoss.comorInvestor:Seth Potter, +1 646-277-1230investor@synchronoss.com