Mobile devices overtake computers on Wi-Fi networks

Mobile devices, led by the iPad and Android phones and tablets, have overtaken computers on Wi-Fi networks, according to a new report from cloud networking provider Meraki. Its another sign that mobile is increasingly the way people access the Internet, bypassing traditional computers in their hunt for information.

Meraki said that in 2010, Windows and Mac OS X accounted for 64 percent of devices that accessed Wi-Fi networks, while iOS (the iPhone and the iPod touch at the time) accounted for 32 percent while Android was just 1 percent. A year later, iOS, bolstered by the iPad and Android now represent 58 percent of Wi-Fi devices while Windows and Mac OS X account for 36 percent. The numbers have gone up since March, when Om got some Wi-Fi usage statistics from Meraki, which found that the iPhone accounted for 23.5 percent of connections, while Android had 5.2 percent and the iPad took 3.4 percent.

Meraki said for the most recent study, it surveyed more than 100,000 devices accessing general use, public and educational Wi-Fi networks across the U.S., looking at usage and operating systems from 2010 to 2011. The study compared the first half of 2010 with the first half of this year.

The iPhone was the most popular device on Wi-Fi networks, with a 32 percent share. Android now accounts for 11 percent of devices on Merakis networks, equal to the iPod touch alone. Those numbers will certainly increase for Android as its installed base grows. Meraki also found that the iPad was a power device, consuming almost 200 megabytes per month, about four times as much as the average for Android, i! Phone an d iPod touch devices.

The numbers should not be too surprising considering were at a point where mobile devices are in the process of overtaking computer sales. And with many public Wi-Fi spots, its more practical to browse with a mobile device than a laptop. Kiren Sekar, director of marketing at Meraki said the number of computers that hit Wi-Fi networks continues to grow, but the pace of mobile device growth has been much higher.

Smartphones and tablets are so much more mobile than laptops; the idea of someone pulling out a laptop in a store to check email, Facebook or prices, its very impractical, said Sekar. What were seeing with these mobile devices is its practical and enjoyable to do that.

This was going to happen at some point, but the quick pace with which mobile devices have taken over is impressive. More than half of mobile phones sold this year in the U.S. are expected to be smartphones;add in tablets, Wi-Fi enabled media players, gaming devices and connected cameras, and its clear that the way people use the Internet is shifting dramatically.

Its also another reminder that content owners and publishers should be preparing for more people using mobile devices to consume their content. Right now, many sites are still not optimized for mobile, which can be a lost monetization opportunity. Make no mistake, the world is turning mobile, and its happening right now. Better to get with the program than get left behind.

Related content f! rom Giga OM Pro (subscription reqd):


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Samsung asks ITC to ban the import of Apple devices

Image
The back-and-forth in the patent dispute between Samsung and Apple continues, with Samsung filing a request for a U.S. import ban against the iPhone, iPad and iPod, FOSS Patents reports . The complaint was filed with the International Trade Commission (ITC) on Tuesday. The ITC is a government regulatory body, which acts independently of the courts. Apple seems to be gearing up for a preliminaryinjunctionrequest in its legal case against Samsung in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, but it hasnt sought any action from the ITC, unlike in previous cases against competing smartphone manufacturers such as HTC . Samsungs move is a clever way to beat Apple to a potentially hobbling import ban, since the ITCs decision is independent of the ongoing court case, and a final decision is reached within a fairly set time frame of 16 to 18 months, once the ITC agrees to investigate. Apple is likely to respond with a complaint of its own, according to FOSS Patents Floria...
Keep reading

China to make Tesla the next BMW

Image
Tesla's China business is booming Hong-Kong traded Tencent, a company best known for its WeChat messaging app, disclosed in a Tuesday filing that it's  taken a 5 percent stake in Tesla for $1.78 billion.  The investment follows Tencent's new stake in taxi-hailing app Didi Chuxing, which can be accessed through WeChat. "I think Tencent likely wanted exposure to a company that was growing very quickly in electric and autonomous" vehicles, said Tasha Keeney, an analyst on the  ARK Industrial Innovation ETF (ARKQ) , whose top holding is Tesla. "We think the autonomous mobility as a service market could be $10 trillion in gross sales globally by the early 2030s, and companies like Tesla or  Baidu  could take a cut of that," she said. Tesla declined to comment to CNBC. Tencent did not respond to emailed requests for comment. A Tencent spokesperson  told The Wall Street Journal  that "Tesla is a global pioneer at the forefront of new te...
Keep reading

Who Will Create iTunes for the Cloud?

Image
If youre like me, your digital media life is messy. If I were to take inventory of where all my digital media resides, the list would include Flickr, Facebook, iTunes, Android, Netflix, YouTube, Picasa, Flipshare, Amazon, Kindle, iBooks, Windows PC, Mac, iPad and so on. Like I said, a mess. And while Im an early adopter, Im probably not very different from tens of millions of consumers who face digital media anarchy every day across the various screens, accounts and software populating their life. Apple is the first company to even come close to helping us manage this chaos, with iTunes. After it was first introduced a decade ago, the service becamehugely popular partly because it was the first cohesive management tool for first music, then later other types of media. But iTunes has gotten flabby with age , and the creaking has gotten more noticeable lately as the cloud becomes more and more important for digital media storage. In a way, iTunes has become the Windows of consumer medi...
Keep reading