More Americans Access Internet From Mobile Devices

[Brian Warkoczeski]

More Americans Access Internet From Mobile Devices

By Mike Kent, newsfactor.com

July 22, 2009

www.yahoo.com

Americans are increasingly accessing the Internet with mobile devices 
like smartphones and laptops, the Pew Internet & American Life Project 
reported Wednesday. The trend is especially prevalent among minorities.

In an April survey, the project found 56 percent of Americans had 
accessed the Internet from a mobile device, with 36 percent using 
laptops. Access through game consoles and MP3 players was also counted.

The report said 32 percent of Americans have used a cell phone or 
smartphone to send e-mails and instant messages or to find information. 
That was up from 24 percent in December 2007. More significantly, on a 
typical day 19 percent of Americans access the Internet from a mobile 
device, up 73 percent from 11 percent in 2007.

Pew also found that access to the Internet using handheld devices is 
more prevalent among minorities than among whites. The survey of 2,253 
adults found a slight increase in the number of whites using a handset 
to access the Internet, to 28 percent from 21 percent in 2007.

By contrast, African-Americans accessing the Internet with a handheld 
device shot up to 48 percent from 29 percent. Latinos also registered a 
rise, to 47 percent from 38 percent.

Pew speculated that the cause was a shift of Internet use away from home 
desktops and laptops to mobile phones.

In a separate report, Pew found that minority access to the Internet 
from home was 46 percent less than among whites. It reported that 
minorities owned fewer computers than whites, but with mobile phones 
added, Internet access for whites, African-Americans and Latinos was 
relatively constant.

"Mobile access strengthens the three pillars of online engagement: 
Connecting with others, satisfying information queries, and sharing 
content with others," said John B. Horrigan, associate director of the 
Pew Internet Project. "With access in their pockets, many Americans are 
'on the fly' consumers and producers of digital information."

Questions in the survey were in English, so Spanish-speaking Latinos 
were not included. The report said, "The lack of a Spanish language 
option means the Hispanics in the April sample are collectively better 
off socioeconomically than if the sample included respondents who had 
the option to take the survey in Spanish."