Average Joe’s Entertainment has added Ira Dean to its growing roster. The former Trick Pony member will release his first single for the label, “Something About A Sunday,” this September. He’s also had some recent radio activity with the album cut “Beer or Gasoline,” which he co-wrote and was previously recorded by Chris Young. Dean’s self-titled solo debut CD is set to be released by Average Joe’s Entertainment in late 2011.
“Ira is a true triple threat: he’s a hit songwriter, a great singer and a true entertainer! We are thrilled to welcome him to Average Joe’s,” said Pres. Tom Baldrica.
“I’m very excited to be working with Tom Baldrica and Average Joe’s and to be label mates with my good friends Colt Ford and Montgomery Gentry,” added Dean.
Chart-topping hits written by Dean and recorded by Trick Pony include “Pour Me,” and the Grammy nominated “Just What I Do.” Since leaving the trio in 2008, Dean has been busy writing songs for artists including Joe Nichols, Chris Young, ex–band mate Heidi Newfield, Jake Owen, Gary Allan, and Montgomery Gentry, including their big hit “One In Every Crowd.” He also has the writing credits on the title track of Proud To Be Here, Trace Adkins’ album, due out Aug/ 2.

According to a new study from The Nielsen Company, data use by smartphone owners is growing at an “astounding pace.” The market research company bases its findings on analysis of over 65,000 lines. Not unexpectedly, Android and iPhone owners are at the top of the data use tree. BlackBerry and Windows (mobile and Phone 7) are also growing, but overall use less data.
Presently 37% of U.S. mobile subscribers have smartphones and the number continues to grow robustly. Data usage per month, per user, according to the report has grown in the last 12 months 89% jumping from 230(MB) in Q1 2010 to 435(MB) in Q1 2011.
Why is data use growing? Perhaps it is a combination of apps and friendly operating systems which encourage users to consume data. At this time (see graph) the average Android user consumes 582 (MB) per month while the average iPhone user chews 492 (MB) per month.
This writer recently switched from an iPhone to an Android Samsung Infuse, setting it up on the same ATT account. Data consumption using the Android phone (with 8 days remaining in the period) is already higher than any previous iPhone month, although it looks like it will be below the average total per user per month mentioned above of 582 (MB).
A happy note for consumers is that with usage up and prices steady, the result is a lower cost per MB. In fact Nielsen computes that the cost per MB has dropped from 14¢ Q1 2010 to 8¢ Q1 2011.
An accompanying Nielsen article, written 6/30/2010, notes that the rise of usage-based pricing may be the fairest as well. It concludes that the top 6 percent of smart phone users are consuming half of all data and a quarter of these early adopters are not using their device for data services at all.
Over the past year both ATT and Verizon have shifted from flat rate, all you can eat plans to tiered pricing based upon usage as have other carriers. (Verizon charges $30/mo. for 2 GB; ATT charges $25/mo. 2 GB.)
With the increased bandwidth speeds of 4G close at hand, it seems sane to project that data usage will continue to rise. Let’s hope, as consumers, that prices don’t.