Last Friday, for most of us, it was pay day. It marked the end of the long (and very wet) month of January where we all recover from our Christmas spending. A lot of gifts were mobile devices, and sales of tablets in particular are predicted to outsell both PCs and Notebook during this year.
Smartphones still reign supreme however, and stats show that almost 30% of all internet traffic on Christmas day was from smartphone handsets. When combined with other mobile devices, almost 50% of all internet traffic was mobile based. Mobile-formatted sites such as Metro Play, BBC News and your very own Coolsmartphone.com are geared specifically to render quickly on smaller screens.
At launch of Metro Play Casino, the managing director of Metro, Linda Grant said that the site was “built to fit into our core urbanite audience’s busy, on-the-move lifestyles”, and they’re glad to see that the mobile development is now paying off as mobile traffic soars.
As we’ve mentioned before, more and more purchases are being made on mobile handsets too – sometimes even from inside traditional “brick and mortar” shops as we try to find a better deal. Stats now show that purchases from mobile devices has increased a massive 40% during December 2013 when compared to the same month in 2012. A massive 29% of all online sales during the period were made from devices in your sweaty hands. John Lewis has released figures showing three quarters (75%) of traffic to its online site was from mobile devices. This meanth that they had a bumper festive period, with orders made on Christmas Day increasing by 19%.
However, there is a bit of a twist. Although smartphone users tend to go on the internet more than tablet owners, people prefer to buy things from tablets more. This is probably due to the bigger screen.
Put together, it’s yet more evidence that less people are choosing to purchase a desktop PC. The majority of tasks people undertake on devices can be completed using online services, and people would rather have the portability and simplicity of a tablet or smartphone rather than a more high-maintenance computer. Drawing from my own personal life, I can certainly say that I have a lot less time to sit in front of a machine, and most articles on Coolsmartphone are now written on the move or during small periods of downtime in a coffee shop or queue.