95% of Users — Can that be Right?

Here’s an eye-catching stat from the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona. AT&T claims that 95% of iPhone users use the device to surf the web.

If true, this is REALLY significant. A crappy user experience has kept mobile internet use stuck in the starting gate, at least here in North America. If the iPhone changes that, that’s huge, and eventually the cost for the devices will come down and be accessible to more consumers. Of course it took Apple to design the device, not the carriers.

So does this mean the carriers will become the “dumb pipe” in the mobile space, like they have in landline? Carriers better get creative fast and better define the value they bring to their customers.