The Rise of the Mobile-Only User | Karen McGrane – HBR


If you’re trying to reach specific audiences, you can’t afford to ignore mobile-only users. As Pew Internet reports:

  • Young adults: 50 percent of teen smartphone owners, aged 12-17, say they use the internet mostly on their cell phone, according to a 2013 Pew Internet report on Teens and Technology. Similarly, 45 percent of young adults aged 18-29 reported in 2012 that they mostly go online with a mobile device.
  • Black and Hispanic adults: 51 percent of black Americans and 42 percent of Hispanic Americans who use a mobile device to access the internet say that’s the primary way they go online — about double the 24 percent of white Americans who say they rely on their mobile devices for access.
  • Low-income adults: People whose household income is less than $30,000 per year and people with less than a college education are also more likely to rely on their mobile devices for access — about 40 percent of people in these groups say they primarily use their cell phone to go online. Healthcare, non-profit, and government institutions which need to reach these populations should be aware that their audience is mobile-only.

See the full article: The Rise of the Mobile-Only User | Karen McGrane – Harvard Business Review.

Infographic: 2012 Mobile Growth Statistics | DigitalBuzzBlog 

The Rise of Mobile