According to the industry’s leading annual report on the state of mobile use, people spent more time than ever on mobile apps in 2022. A year earlier, mobile users downloaded almost half a million apps a minute.
The share of mobile seems to be increasing. In the fall of 2022, mobile users were the vast majority in the world, accounting for around 59% of all users. Desktop followed with just over 39%, and tablet users were just 2%.
The data was a bit different in the US. Half of all internet users were on desktop, followed by mobile with 46%.
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Mobile favors social media, and desktop users have deeper interests
According to the above report, 80% of social media use came from mobile. However, this wasn’t the mobile-heaviest pastime. Checking the weather and couponing accounted for more than 80% of exclusively mobile use.
Data shows that mobile users spend far less time on websites than desktop users, who demonstrate deeper interests. Real estate, financial, and travel-related websites were popular with the latter category of users. In general, they used them to perform research.
Conversion rates
According to a recent report on mobile trends by Merchant Savvy, mobile e-commerce in the US is expected to make up 10.4% of all retail sales in the next two and a half years. Mobile users visit fewer pages than desktop users. Unsurprisingly, mobile’s bounce rate is the highest (52 globally). Desktop users spend 40% more time on websites than mobile users.
In terms of mobile and desktop conversion rates, the desktop remains in the lead. Desktop conversions are at 3.7% compared to 2.2% for mobile.
Websites still need to be optimized for both experiences
In light of all this, mobile and desktop statistics will remain highly dynamic, so optimizing for both mobile and desktop use is best. Having a mobile-friendly website can make the difference between ranking on the first and the third page in search engine results. Search engines take mobile-friendliness into account.
Desktop is still essential for internet life. Interestingly, the share of mobile users dropped by 9% between 2022 and 2021.
Crafting the right marketing strategy
If desktop accounts for the majority of your traffic, but mobile users have a higher conversion rate, you might reconsider how to generate the biggest returns. One way would be to encourage mobile users to browse for longer periods. If more desktop users than mobile users convert, you could consider ways to streamline your mobile to your desktop experience. For example, you can let mobile users save items, then buy them on a desktop.
Use differences
As noted, social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram get most of their traffic from mobile. Just over a fifth of social media users engage via a computer.
Other industries that receive a lot more visitors from mobile include gambling, sports sites, and the adult industry, according to data from eco-friendly web hosting provider GreenGeeks.
Mobile is not smartphone-only
Many people make the erroneous assumption that “mobile” means only smartphones. It also includes tablets. When considering desktop vs. mobile use, this can be further divided into Android vs. desktop and iOS vs. desktop.
The sizes of mobile screens are different, which is why the term “multi-device support” is being used increasingly often. In the past, you had to have different websites built based on the screen size or the type of device used to access them. You’d have a smartphone version, a desktop version, and a tablet version. Now, the majority of websites are responsive to all devices and screen sizes. A responsive website changes dynamically based on the device that is accessing it.
