Six in 10 Americans now go online wirelessly
Six in ten American adults now go online wirelessly using either a mobile phone or a laptop with a wireless internet connection, according to a May 2010 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.
Nearly half of all American adults (47%) go online with a laptop using a Wi-Fi connection or mobile broadband card (up from the 39% who did so as of April 2009).
And 40% of adults use the internet, email or instant messaging on a mobile phone (up from the 32% of Americans who did this in 2009).
Compared with a similar point in 2009, mobile phone owners are now more likely to use their mobile phones to:
- Take pictures – 76% now do this, up from 66% in April 2009
- Send or receive text messages – 72% vs. 65%
- Access the internet – 38% vs. 25%
- Play games – 34% vs. 27%
- Send or receive email – 34% vs. 25%
- Record a video – 34% vs. 19%
- Play music – 33% vs. 21%
- Send or receive instant messages – 30% vs. 20%
Aaron Smith, research specialist and the author of the report, said: “The growing functionality of mobile phones makes them ever-more powerful devices for on-the-go communications and computing.
“Cell phones have become for many owners an all-purpose chat-text-gaming-photo-sharing media hub that is an essential utility for work and a really fancy toy for fun.”
According to agency Initiative, there will be 1.82 billion internet enabled phones worldwide by 2013.