We have all heard the buzz surrounding connected devices lately. Devices such as smartphones, personal navigation devices, ereaders, fitness devices, home health monitors, and home automation products are taking the consumer market by storm. While these products are all very different from one another, they share one common factor and that is cellular connectivity, M2M magazine reports.

Even though there is already much excitement and interest from consumers regarding these devices, many believe this may only be the beginning. According to ABI Research, www.abiresearch.com, Oyster Bay, N.Y., throughout the next five years, connected devices will be responsible for a substantial amount of the data traveling across mobile cellular networks.

More specifically, the analyst firm predicts these types of devices will be responsible for generating more than 87% of the data traffic on mobile networks by 2014 in the United States. Throughout this time period, ABI says smartphone traffic will increase by 48% and attributes this growth to more widespread consumer adoption of various types of smartphone devices, including iPhone and Android devices.

Aside from an increase in traffic being generated by connected devices on their networks, two major U.S. operators will be experiencing another change come 2011. Due in part to the popularity of smartphones such as the iPhone, AT&T, www.att.com, Dallas, Texas, will hold steady as the network with the highest traffic levels this year, a position the operator retained from 2009, according to ABI.

However, we might see a new leader in data traffic in the very near future. ABI anticipates by 2011 Verizon Wireless, www.verizonwireless.com, Basking Ridge, N.J., will surpass AT&T as the network leader, attributing this to Verizon’s growing market penetration with smartphones, which consume high amounts of data traffic, and a high number of mobile subscribers.

The analyst firm anticipates another major shift for operators: the types of devices driving traffic on their networks. In 2009, a majority of the traffic on mobile operators’ networks came from smartphones. By 2014, ABI expects connected devices will be the leader in data traffic on cellular networks, having grown by 90% during the time period.