The online world is evolving at a pace never before seen and mobile web browsing continues to be in the spotlight. As the end of 2012 approaches, a top priority for many website owners is having a mobile version of their website created in the new year, and for those of you who don’t have it set as a priority, you should! Browsing the web on a mobile device has become the norm, and ill-prepared websites are bound to be left behind by those who are ready and willing to adapt to the mobile-oriented online world.
Here are some great stats courtesy of Google:
There are an estimated 10 million smartphone owners in Australia, and 28% of them have made a purchase online via their phone. While a decent number, this is still far behind many other countries, implying that our mobile web use is still far from reaching its peak. Out of all the countries surveyed, China is in the lead at 59%, followed by Japan at 39%, and the USA at 35%. Furthermore, 75% of Australian smartphone users browse the web. This behaviour again has China in the lead with 83%, followed by Brazil and the UK at 79% and 76% respectively. Interestingly, Australia is leading the tally of smartphone penetration within the mobile market, with 52% of mobiles being smartphones, followed by the UK at 51%, the USA at 44%, and China at 33%.
What does all this mean?
Summing up, we have one of the highest levels of smartphone use in the world. We are using our smartphones to browse the web as well as make purchases more than ever before, and we still have a long way to go. There are several factors contributing to us holding back, however no doubt one of the main ones is network speed. Frustration caused by slow landing websites is a guaranteed turn off, luckily though faster mobile internet is just around the corner, with 4G networks beginning to pop up throughout the country, and faster devices constantly being released. The result of this will undoubtedly results in more web browsing on smartphones, as well as more online shopping done via mobile devices also. Businesses who aren’t ready and have websites which don’t display correctly, take a long time to load, or are difficult to navigate will be left behind, and this is why creating a mobile site is more important than ever. If you’d like to know more about having a mobile version of your website created, talk to one of the web specialists at Quantum!
