Mobile vs Desktop Usage
It is pretty evident that the technological landscape is changing year after year. Studies have shown that more people are using the internet than ever before. That number is estimated to be around 4.5 billion, which is more than half of the world’s population.
However, that’s not the only thing that is changing in the world of technology. With new devices coming up, desktop computers are no longer the only way for people to access the web. In fact, more people are now opting to use mobile devices to go online, which is why many website designers are now putting their focus on developing websites for mobile users – even our own website designers in Manchester has had to change their focus from desktop to mobile.
Mobile Internet Usage
Mobile users reached the peak of internet usage in 2019. Although the rise was not dramatic from the year before, there is still a huge difference between 2013 and 2019.
We can see the difference by comparing the total percentage between these two years.
According to statistics, mobile users consisted of only about 16.2% of the world’s internet traffic in 2013. However, that percentage increased to 52.2%. We can see that mobile usage increased by more than three-fold in 2019 compared to 2013.
With the development of 5G looking more promising than ever, this percentage might increase in the coming years.
Organic Traffic
Based on statistics, websites have also seen a surge in organic traffic from mobile users between 2013 and 2019.
About 27%-33% of organic visits were from mobile devices in the year 2013. However, in the year 2019, that number increased from 56% to 60%.
That is an increase of almost 30% from the year 2013.
Media Consumption
Media consumption on mobile devices has also unsurprisingly increased from 2013 to 2019. This includes video streaming, social media websites, music, etc.
There has been a decline in media consumption on desktop computers by a slight percentage, but the increase in mobile devices has been drastic. You can take a look from the data below
- Statistics show that desktop users spend around 144 minutes on media consumption per day during the year 2013. However, this declined to about 128 minutes per day in 2019.
- Mobile users spent only around 88 minutes per day in 2013. However, by 2019, they were consuming media for more than 203 minutes per day.
From these sets of data, it is pretty evident that mobile users are now consuming more data than desktop users.
Conversion Rate For Online shopping
Online shopping is one area where mobile users do not show a significant increase. It is important to note that conversion rates for an online retail website have definitely increased across all devices. But the conversion rates on mobile devices do not come anywhere near to desktop conversions.
The average conversion rates among desktop in 2019 were around 4.14 percent, while mobile conversion rates were just only around 1.53% in 2019.
Conclusion
The shift in mobile users has been consistently growing in recent years. It might grow even more, and we will probably see a continuous trend. One of the main reasons why we see this trend is because mobile devices are easily accessible. Plus many countries also provide mobile internet at cheap rates.
At this rate, mobile traffic will likely overtake desktop traffic in all areas in the near future.