The World is Going Mobile, Quickly

A new report from StatCounter shows that data traffic from mobile devices now accounts for 10% of all Net traffic worldwide. Data shows mobile Web use is increasing rapidly, particularly in developing regions where mobile phones can vastly outnumber PCs.

  The proportion of Web traffic generated by mobile devices almost tripled in Asia from 2010 to 2012, rising from 6.1% to 17.84%.  In Africa, mobile Web traffic’s share rose from 5.81% to 14.86% over the same period.  Mobile Web use accounted for more than 40% of all Net traffic in a number of countries, including India (48%), Nigeria (58%), Zimbabwe (58%), Sudan (45%), and Uzbekistan (43%).  For many users in these regions, mobile devices are the first and only means of connecting to the Internet.

  The growth in mobile data share was lower in the industrialized west, in North America growing from 4.71% in 2010 to 7.96% in 2012 and from 1.81% to 5.13% in Europe.  Still, that’s almost doubling the share in North America, and almost tripling the share in Europe.  In developed areas, the growth in mobile traffic is dwarfed by the large amounts of traffic generated from other sources.

  With the numbers of mobile devices and broadband wireless networks expanding, look for mobile data traffic growth to continue to outpace other data use drivers, at least for the short term.

Sources -  10% Of Web Traffic Now From Mobile Devices,  InformationWeek Mobility