We knew this day would come. And now it is here. Mobile online use surpasses desktop online use. While this is a first, this shouldn’t be a surprise.
So these statistics go back to 2009. But back then, smartphones and tablets were in their infancy. However, the change was slow. As recent as October 2013, about 75% of online use came from desktops. But around this time, the turn got more drastic. By October 2015, 45% of online use came from mobile sources, compared to 55% coming from desktop sources. Now, history is made. The majority of Internet traffic, 51.2%, comes from a mobile device. Now compare that to 48.8% from a desktop device. While that is a slight majority, we should expect this trend to continue.
We can thank StatCounter for this numbers. They’re are also some telling tales here. In mature Western markets, like the US, Australia, and Great Britain, desktop online use has a fairly wide gap, like around 56-55%. It’s rising markets, like India, Brazil, and China, that’s driving the mobile numbers up. Also, gaps in Western nations are shrinking too. For example, in October 2014, 35% of online traffic came from mobile devices. Two years later, it was 42%. Another interesting tidbit: the number of people using only mobile Internet rises. What drives this?
First of all, smartphones in many Asian nations are flying off the shelves. And here in America, smartphone companies complain that high end smartphones decline in sales. That may be true. But cheaper smartphones are steady in sales. Not too people I know want to pay over $600 for a smartphone. This is especially true when the $100 ones work almost as well. Maybe that’s why online smartphone traffic numbers are slower here. But here is what is clear: If any business wants to thrive, even survive, they must cater to smartphone and tablet consumers. What do you make of these numbers?