This was inevitable – Given the sheer number of mobile users in India, usage of internet on mobile will soon surpass usage of internet through Desktops. While doing research on usage of mobile internet in India, I came across a graph by analytics firm statcounter, showing comparison between PC Vs. Mobile usage for accessing the web.
Mobile Vs Desktop Web usage [India]
The above graph shows comparison of web usage through PC Vs Mobile. In Jan 2009, only 2% of Internet usage by Indians was through mobile devices. This number grew to about 18% by January 2011. The growth of Mobile internet has been fierce since then. In one year alone (till Jan 2012) this figured moved to 42%. And as of April 2012, 48% of hits came through mobile devices.
I am sure in next 3-4 months, we will have more users in India accessing web through mobile devices as compared to PC users.
The graph is even more interesting because, it is does not follow the world-wide trend. I checked many countries including US, UK, Japan, China & others. All of them have slow and gradual move towards accessing web through mobile devices. Even today, in majority of countries less than 10% of internet usage is through PC’s.
Mobile Vs Desktop Web usage [Worldwide]
What this comparison shows is – Very few Indians have access to internet through Desktop PCs or Laptops and using internet on mobile has become easy and cost effective. Secondly, normal broadband connections are still expensive and user prefer accessing web through their mobile phones.
What’s your take on this?