Bye Bye Desktops
June 5th, 2011 | by Mobile Data Group |More internet searches will be done on mobile phones than on desktop computers by 2013 as Australians increasingly embrace smart phones, Google says.
Just 12 per cent of Google searches worldwide were made on a mobile device in December 2010 but that is set to change dramatically, especially in Australia, which has the world’s highest per capita use of mobiles.
Tony Keusgen, Google’s head of technology in Australia and New Zealand, said more Australians would soon have a smart phone than an old-style “feature phone” with basic internet access, which would help drive the surge in mobile internet use.
“Some time late this year or early next year, even in Australia, there will be more smartphones,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the CeBit Australia Web Forward 2011 conference.
He cited the work of tech analyst Mary Meeker, who predicted that mobile internet usage would surpass desktop connections within a few years.
Across the world, mobile internet usage has surged by 3000 per cent in three years.
Its popularity is rising at a pace that is eight times faster than take-up of desktop internet during its infancy in the mid-1990s.