Mobile and Tablet Internet Usage Beats Desktop Worldwide

It’s official. We now use the Internet more on our mobiles and tablets than on our desktop. Independent web analytics company StatCounter has release its findings regarding internet usage worldwide — in October 2016 mobile and tablet devices accounted for 51.3% of internet usage around the world while usage on desktop trails behind at 48.7%.

Here’s the interesting bit: while the general global trend shows that more people are accessing the internet via portable smart devices, countries with mature markets such as the U.S. and the U.K. still rely on the desktop as the primary mode of internet usage (check out these two charts below).

That said, both the U.S. and U.K. are registering year-over-year growth in terms of mobile internet usage, so it is only a matter of time until mobile and tablets replace desktops as the main source of internet usage in these countries.

There are some things to keep in mind with the statistics though (it’s always healthy to be a skeptic). First of all, StatCounter does not weight its data as it believes that applying the wrong weighting methodology will result in inaccurate or out-of-date data.

Additionally, as StatCounter is primarily used to track internet usage trends, StatCounter bases its stats on page views instead of unique visitors. This may lead to some variances in findings when compared to other internet-tracking services.

What this trend spells for businesses, particularly online businesses and those who dabble in e-Commerce, is that it’s probably time to turn your website mobile-friendly, if you haven’t already.