According to a recent study conducted by telecommunications regulator Ofcom, the most popular device to browse the internet with is a smartphone, with several other statistics showing our reliance and love of the handheld devices.
The statistics reveal that 66% of adults in the UK own one, with this percentage rising significantly from the 39% recorded in 2012.
One of the questions in the study asked participants which device they considered to be more important for accessing the internet, and a third of participants (33%) selected the smartphone, whereas just 30% considered it to be the laptop. This is a big shift from the same survey last year, which revealed that the laptop was more favourable with 40%, compared to 22% who chose the mobile device.
The survey also revealed that smartphones are the device that UK users spend the most time on, with an average of almost two hours spent each day. This is big news for companies who operate online, who in order to thrive, must incorporate responsive design to their websites so that they are perfectly visible on mobiles. This will help them in terms of Google ranking, an important part of SEO, as well as assisting with sales.
Ofcom noted that 4G is one of the possible reasons why these devices are more popular than ever, as 4G allows a user to access the internet in a wider range of places, and at quicker speeds. Subscriptions to devices with these capabilities soared to 23.6 million by the end of last year, marking a rapid increase from the start of 2014, when there was only 2.7 million.
Furthermore, smartphones are still growing in popularity. Over 90% of UK residents aged between 16 and 24 own a smartphone, which is hardly surprising, but the devices are becoming more popular with the older age categories, with half of people in the 55-64 age range now owning one, compared to only 19% three years ago.
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