StatCounter Says 8.5% Of Internet Usage Comes From Mobile

A new study from research group StatCounter has found that 8.5% of the world's Internet usage comes from a mobile device. And when StatCounter says "mobile" device, they're talking about the purest form – cell phones only. Tablets were not included in the data. So the question is – is this a big number or should it be bigger? The answer is pretty obvious when you look at how the stats have changed over the last couple years.

Some headlines regarding the new report claim that "only" 8.5% of Internet downloads and uploads come from smartphones. From our perspective, though, the word "only" is a complete misnomer. Just look back one year – StatCounter's version of this same study one year ago found that 4.3% of Internet usage came from mobile, and in 2009 the number was 1.6%. So in the span of just two years, mobile Internet usage has increased more than five-fold. That's pretty impressive if you ask us.

As for who is responsible for that usage, Nokia remains the leader in mobile Internet access, purely because of the volume of handsets it has throughout the world. In addition, in many of the areas where Nokia has never declined in its ubiquity, like developing countries, much of the population does not haves access to a computer so phones are the primary Internet medium. Second on the list was Apple, for a completely different reason – though it does not have the global reach Nokia does, the customers it does have are far more likely to eat up gobs and gobs of mobile data. Samsung, RIM, and HTC rounded up to the top, in order.

[via PaidContent]