Are Smart Phones Spreading Faster than Any Technology in Human History?

New digital technologies tend, as a rule, to achieve mass marked adoption faster than older analog technologies. That seems to hold true for smart phones and tablets, for example. 


It took landline telephones about 45 years to get from 5 percent to 50 percent penetration among U.S. households, and mobile phones took around seven years to reach a similar proportion of consumers. 


Smart phones have gone from five percent to 40 percent in about four years, despite a recession.  Over time, successful new technologies get adopted faster, every decade. 


Here's another visualization.

Of $93 Billion in Online Travel Purchases, 3% Are Mobile

About three percent of online travel transactions are conducted using a mobile phone. That suggests something on the order of $2.8 billion in annual purchases in the U.S. market. As more tablets are adopted, the percentage of "mobile" transactions should grow dramatically.


According to Greystripe (which was acquired by ValueClick) research, 47 percent have used a tablet to book a hotel, 37 percent to book a flight, 28 percent to make a restaurant reservation and 24 percent to rent a car. Overall, 91 percent of iPad users have used their device for a travel related activity of some kind.

However, more often than not, users choose to interact with full websites rather than dedicated apps. Some 69 percent of iPad users and 60 percent of smartphone-owning respondents have used the mobile web to book travel, get travel information or research local attractions, restaurants and activities. 

In comparison, 50 percent of iPad and 52 percent of touch smart phone owners have used apps for the same purpose.

Greystripe got the data from 971 users on its network from June 1, 2011 to July 31, 2011. Frequent travelers were defined as people who travel two or more times per year.