Swanson Russell

The World Wide Web has continuously evolved at an exponential rate since its creation. The current change is how we are moving from accessing the Web from our home or work desktop computers or laptops, to accessing the Web from anywhere, at anytime, on our smartphones. Now, accessing the Web via a mobile device can really be done by both smartphones and Web-enabled feature phones, but for the purpose of this article, we are referring to mobile access to the Internet via smartphones (iPhones^®, Android powered phones, certain Blackberry^® devices and the new Windows powered phones).

Numbers to Consider

It's easy to say “just jump into mobile,” but it is important to understand the state of the mobile Web. So let's look at some numbers.

According to a Pew Internet study posted July 2010, 38% of all adults access the Web via a mobile browser. Now you look at that number and may not be overly impressed, but one thing to consider is this number also includes Internet-capable feature phones. I would expect mobile Web access on smartphones to be much higher.

If we were to look at this number by age group, it breaks down as such.

Percent of cell phone owners who use their phones to access the web by age group

Another number I like to look at is the frequency at which these people access the mobile Web, and the change that occurred between the middle of 2009 and the middle of 2010. I like to lump the "several times a day" group and the "about once a day" group together, and as you can see, there has been a huge jump from 36% to 55%.

 Frequency of mobile internet user (% of mobile internet users)

What are Mobile Consumers Doing?

Use of mobile devices continues to evolve and expand as seen from the various statistics below.

- 200 million mobile Facebook users in 2011

- 86% of mobile internet users are using their devices while watching TV 

- 50% of all local searches online were performed on a mobile device

- 48% of consumers use mobile to look up products or promotions 

- 40% of US smartphone owners compare prices on their device while in-store

The take away from all the various statistics is that no matter what you're doing or where you're at, access to information is more important than ever. No longer are consumers tied to their chairs or their desks. This begs to question; is your brand, your website, your campaign prepared for the mobile consumer?

In future posts I hope to cover three distinct kinds of mobile websites as well as mobile applications versus native applications. In the meantime, I want to leave you with a few tidbits on the future of the mobile Web as well as a video that I think summarizes why you should pay attention to the mobile Web.

"More Americans are expected to own a smartphone than a feature phone by the end of 2011."

"By 2013 the majority of the web content will be viewed on a mobile device."