Internet access majority shifting from PCs to mobile phones

Internet access is switching from standard wireline use via PCs to mobile access via smartphones. That's the news coming from Framingham tech market research firm IDC, which found in its research that the switch in majority Internet access may take until 2015 to happen.

IDC noted in a report released today that smartphones have begun to outsell simpler feature phones, and that media tablet sales are taking off. IDC predicted that the number of mobile Internet users will grow by a compound annual growth rate of 16.6 percent between 2010 and 2015. As a result, IDC says that the number of people accessing the Internet through PCs in the U.S. will level off, and then start to decline, with Japan and Western Europe following the same trend.

Karsten Weide, research vice president, media and entertainment at IDC, noted in a press release, “Soon, more users will access the Web using mobile devices than using PCs, and it’s going to make the Internet a very different place.”

That won’t shock the generation who stay connected to Facebook and regularly browse the Web through smartphones. But it will change the way businesses deal with the Web. IDC said the total number of Internet users will grow from 2 billion in 2010 to 2.7 billion in 2015. During that same timeframe, global business to consumer spending will grow from $708 billion to $1.28 billion. In addition, worldwide online advertising will almost double from $70 billion in 2010 to $138 billion in 2015, according to IDC.

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