Mobile devices to overtake desktop PCs as dominant global internet platform next year

The number of users accessing the internet through a mobile device (including a smartphone or tablet computer) will soon exceed those who rely on traditional desktop and laptop PCs, new research has revealed.

The ComScore figures, published by TechCrunch, reveal that the number of users accessing the internet through mobile devices worldwide will increase from 1.2 billion to 1.4 billion during 2012. This, in turn, is a significant increase from 2007 when about 400 million people used a mobile device to access the internet.

In contrast, while the number of desktop and laptop PC users accessing the internet reached 1.4 billion in 2010, the number of new desktop internet users has increased by less than 200 million since then; a significantly slower rate of increase than for mobile devices.

ComScore predicts, based on current growth rates, mobile devices will overtake traditional desktop computers during 2013.