Smart Phones are Closing Internet Gaps Everywhere

Over 6.6 billion mobile phones will be in use by the end of 2017, according to CCS Insight's new market forecast. About 66 percent  of them will be smart phones, up from less than 25 percent in 2012.

In the first three months of 2013, smartphone shipments exceeded those of non-smartphones for the first time ever. Sales of smartphones have been helped by new, cheaper devices, especially, but not only, in emerging markets. The mobile and media analyst firm expects 1.86 billion mobile phones to be shipped in 2013, of which 53 percent will be smart phones

That means smart phone markets in Western Europe and North America will see penetration levels approaching saturation point in these markets within three years.

More than 50 percent of the mobile phones in use in these regions are already smart phones. CCS Insight predicts this figure will grow to more than 80 percent in 2015. Beyond 2015, much of the growth will come from emerging markets.

At the same time, sales of tablets are rising at a staggering rate. Altogether, global shipments of smart mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) will increase 2.5 times between 2012 and 2017, to reach 2.1 billion units. CCS Insight predicts that by 2017 the combined number of mobile phones and tablets in use will exceed the world's population.

Nor shouild we  underestimate the role of smart phone access in narrowing “gaps” between regions, states and population segments in use of the Internet, either in developing or developed regions.

It now is clear that the ways people choose to use the Internet is becoming more segmented, and that many users prefer to use smart phones rather than fixed Internet connections.

According to a 2013 analysis conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the digital divide between Latinos and whites is smaller than what it had been just a few years ago.

Between 2009 and 2012, the share of Latino adults who say they go online at least occasionally increased 14 percentage points, rising from 64 percent to 78 percent.

Among whites, Internet use rates also increased, but only by half as much—from 80 percent in 2009 to 87 percent in 2012, Pew researchers say.

Over the same period, the gap in mobile phone ownership between Latinos and other groups either diminished or disappeared.

In 2012, 86 percent of Latinos said they owned a cellphone, up from 76 percent in 2009.

In 2011, 76.2 percent of non-Hispanic white households and 82.7 percent of Asian households reported Internet use at home, compared with 58.3 percent of Hispanic homes and 56.9 percent of black households, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Race and ethnicity did not in 2011 seem to be particularly strongly related to  

smart phone use. Although smart phone use was significantly higher for Asian respondents (51.6 percent), reported rates  for white non-Hispanics and blacks

were not statistically different from one another (about 48 percent each, respectively).

In 2011, a plurality of Americans connected to the Internet from multiple locations and multiple devices (27.0 percent).

These individuals were considered “high connectivity” individuals. The second most common position on the continuum was the opposite extreme—individuals without any computer or Internet activity at all (15.9 percent), or “no connectivity”