Mobile Overtakes Desktop Web Browsing For First Time

According to data released by StatCounter for October, mobile devices were used more often for web browsing than traditional desktop machines.

The figures show that combined mobile and tablet devices accounted for 51.3 percent of worldwide web use compared to 48.7 percent via desktop.

OK, so there’s only a 2.6% difference overall, but the moment is a very significant one for the world-wide web overall, and it’s a trend that’s unlikely to find itself reversing any time soon.

It should also serve as a wake-up call to any business that hasn’t yet decided to focus on mobile first approaches to doing business in the cloud in the 21^st Century. Not only is mobile use going to become  increasingly more important as the amount of traffic it generates continues to grow, but Google itself now favours mobile-friendly websites for its mobile search results.

That said, StatCounter’s data also found some interesting demographical (wow, I honestly didn’t think ‘demographical’ would be an actual word!)  differences between different global regions. The ‘maturity’ of western based internet markets such as in the UK, the US, and Ireland still see a majority of web traffic being accessed from full blooded desktop machines. In the UK for example, desktop browsing accounted for 55.6% and 58% in the US. (Although the gap is decreasing)

It will come as no surprise that the emergent markets in the world such as India sees mobile web traffic account for 75% of all use as more users seek to use the internet in a cost effective manner.

Google originally identified, helped pioneer, and promote the original trend towards mobile browsing several years ago, and its ranking algorithms have shifted in recent times to favour mobile devices. since accelerated the shift with changes to its search favouring mobile.