You can see it in the glow of thousands of tiny white dots at a concert, or that ubiquitous, glazed expression pedestrians get when they stare into a phone on the sidewalk. There’s no denying that more of us are using mobile devices, and that it’s changing the way we not only communicate, but live.
In case you wanted more proof, take a look at the latest presentation by respected venture capitalist Mary Meeker entitled “Internet Trends,” which has a major focus on smartphones and tablets. Meeker has long said that mobile devices point us towards our digital future, one that’s “light on assets” because entire concepts about ownership will change, and her presentation last night at Stanford University gave some figures to show how that was already happening.
Here were Meeker’s top 5, eye-opening stats:
1) Nearly half of all American kids want an iPad for Christmas.
2) Global mobile traffic now represents roughly 13% of Internet traffic.
3) Nearly a third of all American adults own a tablet or e-reader.
4) There are 5 billion mobile phone users in the world, but only 1 billion smartphone users.
5) Android is growing faster than anything: Apple’s fastest growing mobile device is the iPad, with sales having grown three times faster than the iPhone in the last few quarters. But that’s nothing when you look at the adoption of Google’s Android platform, which has grown 6 times faster than the iPhone. To date handset makers have shipped well over 600 million smartphones that run on the Android operating system, while Apple has shipped around 100 million iPhones in the last four years.
Wireless Repair By George 