The Internet changed the world as the generation before ours knew it. First it dominated the Desktop and then the Laptop. Since then it has taken over gaming consoles ( Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP ) and most recently mobile phones. Phones that help you seamlessly surf the web and interact on social media are called smart phones and for good reason. They are really smart and man needs to be smarter than them to use them effectively and wisely.
• How do we use smartphones and PCs?
Data from a 2017 study shows that 43 percent of Internet users still prefer to use their desktops or laptops, but the number is decreasing,. The use of mobile browsing on the other hand is increasing with the advent of cheap smart phones and data packs.
The use of tablets is also declining among the Internet users around the world. It has gone down from 5 percent in 2017 to 4 percent in 2018. Internet traffic from other devices such as video game platforms remains low with 0.14 percent but shows a growth of 17 percent compared to the results of the previous year. It too is a growing as one of the preferred tools of the internet.
According to the study, the UAE heads the list of countires with highest internet penetration. The UAE is followed by Qatar and both have a penetration percentage of 99%. The two Arab countries are followed by others that also have a penetration rate of over 97%, such as Kuwait, Bahrain, Bermuda, Iceland, Norway, Andorra, Luxembourg and Denmark. Spain is in the 18th place with a penetration of 85%, down seven positions compared 2017, despite having exceeded its previous high of 73% penetration. It is clear therefore that penetration has increased exponentially in the last one year.
Here is a table showing the internet penetration and ranking of different countries.
| Countries | Ranking | Penetration %age |
| United Arab Emirates | 1 | 99 |
| Qatar | 2 | 99 |
| Kuwait | 3 | 97 |
| Bahrain | 4 | 97 |
| Bermuda | 5 | 97 |
| Iceland | 6 | 97 |
| Norway | 7 | 97 |
| Andorra | 8 | 97 |
| Luxembourg | 9 | 97 |
| Denmark | 10 | 97 |
| Spain | 18 | 85 |
Today there is no need for a high-end smartphone to browse the internet. A medium range one, even a smart watch will do the trick. It is for reasons of functionality, the ability to multitask and the practicality of its size that the use of the mobile phone for browsing and other cloud based tasks is increasing.
• The importance of mobile applications
According to App data on Google Play, there are now more than 3.5 million applications, while Apple App Store has more than 2 million applications. According to Statistics in the previous year, 197 billion downloads were registered, and by 2021 this figure should be more than 350 billion. After delving into the details, because often the devil lies in the details, it can be argued that the well-known 80/20 principle is in operation in the mobile market as well. For 80% of the time we spend on the mobile, we use 20% of installed mobile applications. The average user has 5 favorite applications. It should be noted that the first running application is active 45% of the time, the 5th only 4% of the time.
• What does this mean for the future?
It is very clear that the focus is shifting to mobile gadgets, wearable, bearable, and usable. A person prefers these gadgets because of their convenience and availability all the time anywhere, even while travelling from point A to point B. Naturally websites are now being built to adapt to all screen sizes and gadgets without any loss of quality. A website that does not have a mobile compatible version will automatically be ignored by web users, even if it has super-useful material. Optimization has now become the key to visibility and visitablility.
• How did we reach this point?
Since the advent of mobile Internet technologies, the number of mobile Internet users has grown from the ground up, and the number of PC users, on the contrary has reduced by comparison. In April 2015, many agencies reported that the number of exclusively mobile Internet users in the US exceeded the number of exclusively desktop-only users. Google last May said that most of their search queries emanated from mobile phones.
• Social Networking vs. mobile devices
It turns out that we spend more than 80% of the time on social networks using phones and tablets. 54% of Facebook users use special applications to operate their Facebook acounts. 87% of the income from advertisements on Facebook is generated from mobile devices. There are noticeable differences in the use of technology among users of Twitter and LinkedIn. Even 82% of Twitter users use the service through a mobile application, while of the second group of users who prefer computers – only 41% actively use the application.
• The mobile is also important for trade
The most active group of users of smartphones and tablets are in the age group of 18-39 years. Even in this group, 69% of users have started the purchase process of a mobile device. Indeed 44% of them used the tablet to find a suitable offer. And already 70% of users note that before buying in the traditional way, they first look for information about the product they are interested in on their mobile device. From research, it becomes clear that during their walkabout in a traditional store 90% of consumers use a smartphone. 54% of them parallelly compare prices, 48% are looking for additional information about the product, and 42% are checking reviews about the selected product.
I spoke to Mr. Vikash Khetan, Director at CouponzGuru.com, a leading coupons and deals website in India about this phenomenon. “Internet is moving towards a mobile first approach. Search giant Google has also made it very clear that they prefer mobile friendly websites. Hence, all online businesses will have to focus on improving their mobile experience for users, be it their app or m-web sites. Mobile is the future of e-commerce”
Given that mobile devices are becoming the key to procurement information we must try and understand what can motivate a consumer to purchase from a traditional store It turns out that for 57%, sufficient motivation is the presence of coupons for purchases on the phone, and 76% are interested in buying in this store, provided that there is a loyalty program for customers in the mobile device.
Only in 2016, mobile devices, with the exception of tablets, were intermediaries in the sale of a total sum of 60 billion dollars. This is only part of the total amount of $ 1.05 billion from traditional sales. It is assumed that this amount will increase to $ 10 billion by 2021.
