Smartphones have overtaken laptops as the most popular device for getting online, in what is described as a “landmark moment” by Ofcom. Britons are spending an hour and 54 minutes accessing the Internet on their mobiles every day – compared to just an hour and nine minutes on PCs. This has been attributed to the rising popularity of high-speed 4G.
Subscriptions to the data network increased eightfold in the space of just 12 months, from 2.7 million at the end of 2013 to 23.6 million in 2014. Two-thirds of the UK now owns a smartphone, and young people have the highest rate of ownership, with 90% of 16 to 24-year-olds owning a device. Half of 55 to 64-year-olds have also made the switch, compared to just 19% of this age group in 2012. According to the media regulator’s research, one in three people now check their smartphones within five minutes of waking up.
You can see these devices are becoming more and more an important vital hub of information and communication throughout the day. – Jane Rumble, head of media research at Ofcom