For the first time, more people are using their mobile devices more than desktop to access the Internet

posted by Victor H. / Nov 02, 2016, 4:53 AM

For the first time, more people are using their mobile devices more than desktop to access the Internet

It's now official: people are using their mobile devices more than traditional desktop computers to go online.

The trend of growing use of mobile devices has been going strong ever since smartphones started taking over the population, but for the first time in October 2016, StatCounter, one of the largest web statisticians, saw mobile actually become the dominant way of accessing the web.

With StatCounter Global Stats data based on over 15 billion page views per month to over 2.5 million websites, there is substantial evidence behind the claim that mobile has taken over the traditional desktop.

In just 7 years, the balance has changed drastically: from almost no one using their phone to access the web, now 51.3% of all traffic comes from mobile devices (including phones and tablets), while only 48.7% comes from a traditional desktop form factor.

It's especially interesting that this dominance of the mobile phone is largely driven by emerging markets, where people do not have the means for two computers and a mobile device like a phone or a tablet is their main and often only point of web access. In developed markets like the United States, though, desktop is still the prevalent way of accessing the web: 58% use desktop to go online, while the remaining 42% rely on mobile.

Still, those numbers are quickly changing and chances are that those developed markets will soon reach a level, where mobile will account for the majority of devices used to access the Internet.

"This should be a wake up call especially for small businesses, sole traders and professionals to make sure that their websites are mobile friendly. Many older websites are not," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. "Mobile compatibility is increasingly important not just because of growing traffic but because Google favours mobile friendly websites for its mobile search results."

Internet usage by country

source: StatCounter

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5 Comments

1. Nathan_ingx

Posts: 4769; Member since: Mar 07, 2012

Talk about convenience. Desktop is a stationary device while you can carry your mobile literally everywhere. Not surprising to me.

posted on Nov 02, 2016, 5:03 AM 5

2. Jeradiah3

Posts: 1149; Member since: Feb 11, 2010

Im not surprised by this either. This has been a trend for years

posted on Nov 02, 2016, 7:19 AM 1

3. ibend

Posts: 6747; Member since: Sep 30, 2014

I'm actually surprised that one website took really long time to fix vote form on their mobile site

posted on Nov 02, 2016, 7:50 AM 1

5. sgodsell

Posts: 7451; Member since: Mar 16, 2013

Considering that over 1.4 billion smartphones are going to sell this year, alone. With only 290 million laptops and desktop computers are going to sell globally. As if we needed an article to tell everyone the obvious. Just go into a coffee shop, and you can see a lot more people using smartphones than anything else. Especially when you can use them to pay for things, and users can quickly look up any piece of information much faster than any laptop. Because they are much more convenient, and faster to pull out and use.

posted on Nov 02, 2016, 8:35 AM 1

4. JunitoNH

Posts: 1946; Member since: Feb 15, 2012

I'm sure there's more to this trend. Mobile displays are larger, and most people, just all out, getting rid of their broadband providers; looking at you Comcast with your high prices. And of course as mentioned, convenience.