It’s hard to believe that only a few years ago, cell phones were a rarity. Now, people everywhere are owners of smartphones and tablets that have the ability to do almost anything. Internet-enabled mobile devices have grown immensely in the past few years, especially in 2012.
Kleiner Perkins venture capitalist Mary Meeker reported key conclusions of a year-end Internet trends report delivered at Stanford University on Monday night. Meeker reported that 13 percent of all Internet traffic is now executed from a mobile device, up from 4 percent just two years ago. In tech-savvy India, mobile Internet traffic has reached 60 percent, surpassing desktop Internet traffic, which has declined to 40 percent.
Overall, there are five billion mobile phones users around the world, but only one billion smartphone users, meaning that companies such as Apple (News - Alert), Google and Samsung are still just tapping into this market.
Image via CNET
Sales of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are expected to gradually increase over the next three years, reaching more than 1.7 billion units in 2015. Meanwhile, sales of PC and laptops are expected to remain relatively anemic with less than 400 million units sold.
Despite the record-setting year for smartphone shipments from manufacturers, the mobile phone market worldwide is projected to grow 1.4 percent for 2012; the lowest rate of growth in the past three years. The recent IDC (News - Alert) report, the Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, expects more than 1.7 billion phones will be shipped in 2012 by manufacturers.
Meeker’s report also found that nearly 30 percent of adults in the U.S. own a tablet or e-reader, an impressive adoption rate considering that less than three years ago only 2 percent owned one of the gadgets.
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Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli