Published on Read/Write Web at 12:15 AM

Mobile Web Use Growing Faster Than Ever

Wireless devices are everywhere these days. Wi-Fi hotspots are are popping up in more places and aircards protrude from the laptops of the mobile workforce. Computing is changing, too. Cloud computing will move applications and storage away from the desktop to remote servers. If anything, this drive to push data off the PC and onto the web has been in some part driven by the increasing mobility of internet users. Mobile access to the web is pushing internet adoption rates up while also providing more people the opportunity to work away from a stationary PC. So who is going mobile? Some new studies from PEW Internet & American Life Project and iPass shed some light on this topic.

Cell Phones are Still Pushing Internet Adoption Rates

Back in 1998, only one third of adults had online access and a desktop PC cost around $1800. At this time, it was mainly upper income Americans, and mostly men, using computers and the internet.

But now, it's mobile access that is bringing the internet to more people. Building from the affordable and easy-to-use cell phone, adoption patterns are different for mobile users than for those accessing the web via traditional PC-based methods. Specially, cell phone internet users include groups that had, before now, lagged in internet adoption, like some minorities and senior citizens...

Published on Read/Write Web at 12:15 AM

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