Mobile Internet Use Surpasses Desktop For The First Time

Its officially a big milestone for web, as mobile surpasses desktop usage!

For the first time in history, more users in October accessed the web from mobile devices than they did from desktops. According to data released by StatCounter Global Stats mobile and tablet devices accounted for 51.3% of internet usage worldwide in October compared to 48.7% by desktop.

StatCounter also revealed that the maturity of markets impacts on the dominant mean of access, with emerging marketing such as India, where mobile devices account for over 75% of internet use. Whereas, mature markets such as the US and UK users still seem to favour desktops over mobile as means of accessing the internet, but the trend is constantly narrowing.

So this doesn’t come as big surprise, given other recent milestones.  Last year, Google revealed that more searches through its engine were carried out via mobile devices. comScore found that the number of mobile-only internet users had surpassed desktop-online in the U.S. And in October, the IAB UK released its latest ad spend study revealing that mobile ad spend also overtook desktop based ad-spend for this first time in the UK.

All these insights remind us this has been a long time in the making.  But could these new StatCounter data be the tipping point that will lead to even sharper change in the clash between desktop vs mobile internet usage?

Only time will tell.

But one thing we are sure of is this marks a huge moment for the web overall and companies too. Meaning going forward companies that have yet to decide to on a mobile approach for their online properties really should or risk missing out on a big opportunity.