For The First Time, Mobile Internet Usage Worldwide Beats Desktop

It’s official. We now use the Internet more on our mobiles and tablets than on our desktop

There's no denying that smartphones now dominate the technology space. And for the first time ever, mobile has taken over desktop as the world's leading internet platform as the majority of worldwide internet usage came from mobile and tablet devices.


According to research by independent web analytics company StatCounter, mobile and tablet devices accounted for 51.3% of internet usage worldwide in October compared to 48.7% by desktop.

 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.

Apparently, Google has started favouring mobile-friendly sites in search results as well. Google recently also announced that it is building a primary mobile index for search results in the next few months. The desktop engine will also be maintained, but the mobile index will get more priority and be updated more frequently.

In June, Google also built a website called test my site for developers to measure how well their site performs on mobile and desktop.

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.