5 Stats That Demonstrate Just How "Mobile" The World Has Become

Not that it was ever a question, at least not in my private life, but there have been few questions about the reality of mobile computing and whether or not the concern is valid for support teams in enterprise IT departments.

 

In a report by respected venture capitalist Mary Meeker, she lays out several statistics about internet use. These are five of the most eye-opening stats that, in my mind, demonstrate just how upon us the mobile computing era actually is.

(Taken from Fobes.com)

1) Nearly half of all American kids want an iPad for Christmas. 

According to research by Nielson, 48% of American children aged between 6 and 12 want Apple‘s iPad for Christmas, making it the most wished-for gift among the next generation of trend setters. In second place comes the Nintendo Wii U, and another 36% want the iPad Mini, followed by the iPod Touch and iPhone in fourth and fifth place. Sure kids still want a fixed games console, but it’s telling that a large proportion of them prefer the mobility of small devices that they can interact with, and take anywhere.

2) Global mobile traffic now represents roughly 13% of Internet traffic.

Just three years ago, in 2009, that statistic was at a measly 1%. It edged up to 4% in 2010, and it hit 13% in November 2012, according to StatCounter Global Stats. The reason: more people are buying things through their mobile phones, using them in the store to validate coupons, or social networking, or using GPS-enabled apps. Shopping is the big driving force, though. On Black Friday 2012, the day after Thanksgiving that marks that frenzied start to the Christmas shopping season in the U.S., 24% of all online shopping took place on mobiles and tablet devices, up from 6% in 2010. In India, mobile Internet traffic has already surpassed desktop traffic as of May 2012.

3) Nearly a third of all American adults own a tablet or e-reader.

Figures from the Pew Research Center show that more than 29% of U.S. adults already own a tablet device, Meeker pointed out. And just as startling: that number is up from 2% less than three years ago.

4) There are 5 billion mobile phone users in the world, but only 1 billion smartphone users.

The mobile revolution may seem well underway, but globally it’s only getting started. The number smartphone users is growing by 42% a year, globally, according to research from Morgan Stanley, where Meeker previously worked as an analyst. Most remarkable again is India. It already has 44 million smartphone subscribers, making it the fifth biggest smartphone market, but this represents just 4% of total subscribers. There’s huge room to grow.

5) Android is growing faster than anything.

Apple’s fastest growing mobile device is the iPad, with sales having grown three times faster than the iPhone in the last few quarters. But that’s nothing when you look at the adoption of Google’s Android platform, which has grown 6 times faster than the iPhone. To date handset makers have shipped well over 600 million smartphones that run on the Android operating system, while Apple has shipped around 100 million iPhones in the last four years.

For Meeker’s full, 88-slide presentation, click here.