• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 15, 2018

Smartphones’ finite data storage is slowing down the video revolution, new research suggests.

In fact, nearly 60% of U.S. adults have received “storage full” notifications at least three times in the past year.

That’s according to a study conducted by independent research company One Poll on behalf of video platform Air.

What’s more, almost 60% of the 1,000 consumers Air surveyed said they were forced to delete content on their phones in order to create space for new content.

“It’s tempting to believe that as the storage capacity on our phone increases, so too does our ability to record videos,” Tyler Strand, Air’s chief technology officer, notes in the new report. “In reality, video quality is rapidly increasing, so the average smartphone in 2018 can hold less video then a single VHS tape from 25 years ago.”

In all, 32% of consumers surveyed said they would record longer videos if storage wasn't an issue.

While most of today’s smartphones have the ability to record video in 4K Ultra HD, the vast majority of consumers (93%) say they weren’t aware that they could capture video in this cinematic quality. At least in part, that’s because iPhones default to low-quality video capturing unless one’s camera settings are manually changed.

More broadly, the research found that nearly 40% of U.S. adults have come to rely solely on their phones to capture video -- despite the fact that storing memories on one’s phones has obvious risks. Indeed, 50% of those surveyed admitted to losing their phone, and of those, 70% admitted that when they lost their phone the content on it was lost forever.

Meanwhile, Air found that women rely on their phones more heavily to capture content. In all, 42% of women -- compared to 28% of men -- said that their phone was the only device they used to record video.

Women also delete content to save space more often than men. In fact, 65% of women said they have deleted content on their phone to save storage space compared to 48% of men.