Not only has our use of mobile devices increased, but there has also been a huge rise in the number of mobile only users, and perhaps an unsurprising rise in the number of people who use a mobile device as their primary tool when accessing the internet. In 2012 it is estimated that 55% of US residents used a mobile device to access the web, and of those mobile users, 31% stated that it was their preferred method when going online. The switch to mobile use is clear, and is growing, and for a large amount of people it is the convenience and the personal aspects that are driving these numbers.
Increased mobile usage is not limited to a certain demographic, and across all income and age levels the same spikes in numbers are seen, and according to a recent survey by ComScore large internet based companies such as Facebook, Amazon and Wikipedia all see around 20% of their traffic is from mobile only users. In the same survey is is reported that a staggering 46% of online shoppers use their only their mobile device when shopping online, and around the same number browse and search the web using the mobile devices when considering a purchase. These numbers coincide with sales of home PC’s and laptops dropping considerably and there can be no clearer message to gaming companies that if you want to reach your audience then mobile is where it’s at.
There are also a few pointers in how companies may be marketing their mobile product too, and quite possibly should be shifting away from the ‘on the go’ message that seems to dominate mobile marketing campaigns in the gaming world. The facts are that people are more likely to browse, search and play when at home rather than on the go, and maybe that message needs to change to something more like ‘on the sofa’. Google states that a huge 77% of search queries from mobile devices take place from the users home or place of work, and not ‘on the go’, clearly the messaging needs to be updated on almost all mobile campaigns that we see.
There is another factor that also points to an increasing number of mobile only users and that is of course the cost factor. Many people with contract smartphones for example may simply no longer have a need for a wifi network at home, and why pay for internet use on a rarely used home computer when you’re already paying for it on your smartphone. There are many signs pointing to an increased number in mobile only users and slowly but surely the numbers of internet users dropping the home PC will increase.
