According to the results of a first-ever survey on smartphone usage by the Pew Internet Project, it was found that 25 percent of respondents prefer to use their smartphones to access the Internet over traditional PCs.
The survey found that 35 percent of all U.S. adults own a smartphone, however looking at just mobile phone owners in the U.S., the number goes up to 42 percent. Pew also found that 87 percent of smartphone owners go Online or get email and 68 percent do so daily.
Looking at the finding that more people prefer accessing Web content on their smartphones rather than PCs, Pew said the following about whether this 25 percent was driven by preference or necessity: “even among smartphone owners who use their phone as their main source of internet access, computer (i.e. laptop or desktop) ownership is quite prevalent. Indeed, fully 84% of these individuals also have a desktop or laptop computer at home.”
Regardless of whether the data supporting this finding is skewed, it represents the obvious shift to mobile devices as the primary source to access the Web. If these stats were to be believed, it would indicate that as many as 22 million Americans prefer the mobile Web over traditional browsing. Personally, I don’t think we’ve hit the point where consumers prefer the mobile Web over the traditional Web. Sure, the mobile Web is growing at a breakneck pace and smarpthones have gotten to a point where everything available on the traditional Web is available via mobile, but we’re still a long way away from seeing any concrete data on whether mobile has overtaken PCs.
What do you think? Do you find yourself accessing the Web more from your smartphone than your PC?
