I’m not breaking any news when I write that mobile Internet usage is exploding.  This move towards mobile has a direct impact on our work here at The Bivings Group, so I’ve been following the trend very closely.   In the spirit of sharing, I figured I’d write a quick (lazy?) post highlighting some key facts about mobile I’ve come across the last few months.

• There are  4 billion mobile phones in use globally. Of these, over one billion are smart phones.  Source 

• Sales of smart phones grew by 96% in 2010.  Source

• It is estimated that by 2014, more people will access the Internet via mobile phones than via desktop computers. Source

• There are 48 million people in the world who have mobile phones, even though they do not have electricity at home. Source 

• Estimates suggest that there will be 788 million mobile-only Internet users by 2015. Source 

• Global mobile data traffic is projected to increase by a factor of 26 by 2015. Source 

• What exactly are all these smart phone users doing?   81% browse the Internet, 77% search, 68% use an app, and 48% watch videos on their smartphone.

• The most popular websites for smart phone users are search engines, social networks, retail and video sharing websites.   Source  

• 72% of smart phone owners use their phones while consuming other media.  1/3 use their phones while watching TV. Source   

• The average American mobile Internet user spends 2.7 hours a day socializing on their mobile device.  Source 

• The number of videos delivered by YouTube to mobile devices tripled in 2010.  YouTube now delivers 200 millions video views each day on mobile devices.  Source

• Starbucks reports that more than 3 million people have paid for coffee using the Starbucks Card Mobile App.  Source

• Over 1/3 of Facebook’s 600 million user base access the site form a mobile devices. Source

• Half of Twitter’s 150 million users access the site from a mobile device. Source