FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — By 2015, more Americans will be using their mobile devices to surf the web than their computers, a new study concluded.
Research firm IDC said that as smartphones begin to win out over feature phones, and as media tablet sales explode, the number of mobile Internet users will grow by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.6 percent between 2010 and 2015.
The report emphasized that the fast growth of smartphones and tablets will be so great that the number of users accessing the Internet through PCs will first stagnate and then slowly decline.
"Forget what we have taken for granted on how consumers use the Internet," said Karsten Weide, research vice president, IDC Media and Entertainment. "Soon, more users will access the Web using mobile devices than using PCs, and it's going to make the Internet a very different place."
IDC noted that the trend will also carry over to Western Europe and Japan.
Research indicated that the total number of Internet users will grow from 2 billion in 2010 to 2.7 billion in 2015, when 40 percent of the world's population will have web access.
And global consumer ecommerce spending will grow from $708 billion in 2010 to about $1.3 billion in 2015 at a CAGR of 12.7 percent.
There’s also good news also for worldwide online advertising that IDC said will increase from $70 billion in 2010 to $138 billion in 2015, with share of total advertising across all media growing from 11.9 percent to 17.8 percent.