Mobile Media Usage is Saturating

No market ever grows to the sky, and growth rates for any popular service or product slow as most people already have bought.

So it is not surprising that mobile media growth rates are slowing considerably. Non-voice time spent on tablets and mobile phones will grow just 11.3 percent in 2015 to two hours and 54 minutes, according to eMarketer.

That slowing trend has been underway since 2012.

In 2016, growth of time spent on mobile will fall into the single digits, with U.S. adults spending an average of three hours and eight minutes per day on mobile devices, excluding voice activities.

“As the data shows, a large majority of American adults are already using mobile devices,” said eMarketer forecasting director Monica Peart. “This means there will be fewer new smartphone and tablet users added each year.

“Also, the number of activities currently possible on mobile devices limits the amount of time a user can spend per day. For these reasons, growth in the amount of time spent on mobile devices will slow down significantly,” Pearl said.

Much of the growth in time spent on mobile devices will come from people spending more time within apps.

In 2015, U.S. smartphone and tablet users will spend an average of three hours and five minutes a day using mobile apps, up from two hours 51 minutes in 2014.

By 2016, mobile device users will spend three hours 15 minutes per day using apps.

Time spent on mobile browser activities will hold steady at 51 minutes in 2015 and 2016.