Source: eMarketer
Today, more and more people in the US are relying on their mobile devices for digital access. eMarketer expects that 88.3% of US internet users will go online via desktop/laptop at least monthly in 2016, a significant decrease from 97.3% in 2011. This year, nearly one in 10 US internet users (11.7%) will go online exclusively through a mobile device—what eMarketer defines as mobile-only internet users—and that number will continue to rise through the forecast period.
More than eight in 10 people in the US will use a mobile phone in 2016. Annual user gains will not climb substantially over the forecast period, with any growth coming from new mobile phone users in the youngest and oldest age segments.
In 2016, smartphone users will account for nearly four out of five mobile phone users. Despite such a high penetration rate, the smartphone user base will grow steadily at 8.7% this year.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
