Mobile internet use still on the move

At the rate things are going, surfing the net from a regular old computer may soon be a thing of the past.

Edward Moyer Senior Editor

Edward Moyer is a senior editor at CNET and a many-year veteran of the writing and editing world. He enjoys taking sentences apart and putting them back together. He also likes making them from scratch. ¶ For nearly a quarter of a century, he's edited and written stories about various aspects of the technology world, from the US National Security Agency's controversial spying techniques to historic NASA space missions to 3D-printed works of fine art. Before that, he wrote about movies, musicians, artists and subcultures.

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Edward Moyer

Oct. 28, 2016 2:06 p.m. PT

Scoring an iPhone in Madrid. Spaniards like their internet mobile, says a report.
Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images

The internet is a yuppie.

Or, if no longer quite young -- and at times not quite professional -- it at least continues to be upwardly mobile.

A report out this week from Zenith, which researches advertising, marketing and media, says mobile gadgets will account for 75 percent of internet use next year. That's up from 68 percent this year and 40 percent in 2012. Zenith says the figure should hit 79 percent by 2018.

Not surprisingly, smartphones are one of the drivers. Zenith says that in 2012 only 23 percent of folks in the 60 markets it covers worldwide had the gadgets. Now 56 percent do. With tablets, those figures are 4 percent and 15 percent. The researcher says phone penetration should hit 63 percent by 2018 and tablets should hit 17 percent.

A global snapshot shows that Spain is currently the mobile champ, with the gadgets accounting for 85 percent of internet use there this year. Hong Kong is second, with 79 percent, and China takes the bronze, with 76 percent. The US is runner-up, with 74 percent, and Italy and India both come in at 73 percent.

Zenith also said 60 percent of advertising will be mobile in 2018.

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