17% of Cellphone Owners Go Online Mostly on Their Cellphones

A recent report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that nearly 9 out of 10 U.S. adults owned a cellphone of some kind in April, with a majority of this population using their cellphones to go online. The report also found that 17 percent of all adult cellphone owners go online mostly on their cellphones.

According to the report, 88 percent of U.S. adults owned a cellphone in April, with 55 percent of these cellphone owners saying they use their phones to go online (“cell Internet users”). This reflects a drastic increases from the 31 percent of cell owners who said the same back in April 2009.

Thirty-one percent of “cell Internet users” said they mostly go online using their cellphone instead of another device, such as a desktop or laptop computer. This means 17 percent of all adult cell owners are cell-mostly Internet users.

Meanwhile, 60 percent of cell Internet users go online with their cellphones, but go online mostly using another device. This means 33 percent of all cellphone owners said the same.

According to Pew, 45 percent of all 18-29-year-olds who use the Internet on their cellphones do most of their online browsing on their mobile devices. Meanwhile, 51 percent of African-American cell Internet users do most of their online browsing with their cellphones, more than twice the percentage of whites who do so (24 percent). Forty-two percent of Latino cell Internet users fall into this category, too.

The main reasons for going online mostly using cellphones are: cellphone is more convenient (38 percent), cellphone is always with me (23 percent), mostly do basic activities online (7 percent), don’t have a computer at home (6 percent), cellphone is easier to use than a computer (6 percent), use phone for work or to go online while at work (4 percent) and only have Internet access on phone/no Internet at home (4 percent).

Pew summarizes the reasons by saying that 64 percent of adult cellphone owners who go online mostly using their cellphones do so because of convenience and availability, while 18 percent do so because of usage and 10 percent do so because of access.

According to the study, 58 percent of U.S. adults own a desktop computer, 61 percent own a laptop computer, 18 percent own a tablet computer, 18 percent own an e-reader and 66 percent have broadband at home.

For cell-mostly Internet users, 48 percent own a desktop computer, 72 percent own a laptop computer, 26 percent own a tablet computer, 20 percent own an e-reader and 70 percent have broadband at home.

For cell-occasionally Internet users, 71 percent own a desktop computer, 81 percent own a laptop computer, 32 percent own a tablet computer, 27 percent own an e-reader and 89 percent have broadband at home.

Source:

http://pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2012/PIP_Cell_Phone_Internet_Access.pdf