Looking at a recent report by whatech.com indicating that mobile Internet access has overtaken desktop Internet access for the U.S. the question arises of how big the impact of mobile Internet really is.Various sources have already reported this happening for countries like China and India.
In their presentation “Internet Trends D11 Conference” KPCB stated that 75% of all Chinese Internet users accessing the web are using their mobile phone and only 71% are using desktop PCs[1]. In the later on published presentation “Internet Trends @ Stanford – Bases” KPCB wrote that mobile access to the Internet has left desktop use behind in mid 2012[2].
Well, let’s pop the bubble right in the beginning: News on this topic is nothing new. Back in 2010 Morgan Stanley[3] had already predicted that mobile Internet would eclipse desktop[4] use by 2012. These figures are not too surprising when looking at the sales figures of the hardware needed in both cases. Interpreting IDC’s studies Forecast: global shipments of tablets, laptops and desktop PCs 2010-2017 [5] and Global smartphone shipments from 2010 to 2017[6] it becomes quite obvious that mobile devices gain more and more importance. Figure 1 shows the massive growth in smart phone shipments and the slow decline of desktop PCs (-21.59%) and laptops (-2.19%) for the period from 2010 to 2017 given that the forecast made by IDC is correct. The green graphs show the share of desktop and mobile devices whereas the blue columns show the amount of devices sold.
Reasons for the Growing Importance of the Mobile Internet Part 2
Reasons for the Growing Importance of the Mobile Internet Part 3
Image by Maridav
