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Mobile traffic: How mobile makes most of Internet traffic

The amount of internet traffic generated by mobile devices is growing exponentially and this article examines how that trend is likely to continue.

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woman hand holding iphone

It is amazing to think how smartphone technology has advanced. Mobile phones have only been around for about 40 years, with a very select few actually having one of these devices when they first hit the market. Now, it is remarkable when someone does not have one of these handheld devices. In fact, some people have two or three of them. It is an extraordinary time to say the least.

At the same time that smartphones were becoming the norm, the Internet has grown at the same exponential rate. There is no doubt that these two have become linked, as mobile usage now accounts for most of the Internet traffic.

Advertisers Are Recognizing the Change

There is one way that you can tell that a trend has now become mainstream. That is when advertisers are focusing their attention in that industry or area.

This is what has happened with mobile devices. Advertisers understand that the vast majority of people are shopping, reading stories, and communicating with one another using these handheld devices. So, they have begun to focus their attention on developing ad campaigns specifically geared toward the mobile user.

Not only are they available on websites and browsers, but you can find these advertorials on industry relevant websites as well. They are teaching these tech companies and website developers that advertising is going to be geared toward these industries and so they need to develop products and services based upon where the advertising dollars are flowing.

It’s Time for Your Close Up

The smartphone has truly become a remarkable piece of engineering. It is amazing how they have miniaturized some extremely sophisticated technology which not only allows users to carry around chips that are able to process billions of bytes of information per second, but also offer people the ability to communicate in ways that could not possibly have been imagined a half-century ago.

One need look no further than digital images that users can take to see the advancement. Now, people can use their devices to take high-definition images and to take them an incredibly high resolution as well. This has actually become one of the primary ways in which Internet traffic has moved from the PC and onto a mobile device.

People no longer need to take a picture with a camera, downloaded to their PC or laptop computer, then send out to family or friends in an email. Now, they can take pictures on their phone, then send the image via a social media account, email, text message, messenger program, or half a dozen other ways that are available to them.

These images have become a primary source of Internet usage, not only in the form of still photos but in videos as well. People share their images with just about anyone, and this is requiring a lot of bandwidth to accommodate all of these pixels.

Gaming and Entertainment

The primary reason that people use their smartphone or other handheld device is for communication. Whether it is in the form of text messages, social media accounts, phone calls, or messaging programs, people are still using phones for their initial purpose – to communicate with one another.

However, the advancements in technology have opened up an entirely different world for these devices, and this has helped to exponentially increase the amount of data that people are using with their handheld device. Some analysts report that as much as 57% of all Internet usage comes through mobile devices, a percentage that has doubled in the last three years alone.

It is easy to see why there has been such a change. One of the ways that people have come to use their mobile devices is true entertaining themselves. Now, users can play video games, watch movies and television programs, live stream sporting events, even place bets.

This is no longer a device used for communication. In fact, we are reaching a point where using the smartphone to communicate with one another is becoming a secondary, maybe even a tertiary purpose.

App designers and developers are catering applications specifically for mobile devices. They are understanding that people are not browsing the Internet using their PC or laptop. Instead, they are pulling out their handheld device and tracking information that way.

They are also playing some extremely sophisticated role-playing and adventure games on their smartphones. These games require massive amounts of data to be transferred back and forth. Yet, the devices are able to handle all of this because of improved Internet connectivity, excellent graphic and sound cards, and high-resolution screens.

All of this is coming together to lead to a significant increase in the amount of data transfer necessary to allow for all of this information to be transferred from servers to handheld devices.

The Trend Is Growing

What is truly staggering about all this is that we are reaching a point to where the desktop or laptop computer is heading the same direction as the dinosaur. So many people are using tablets and smartphones that it will be almost impossible to communicate or do business without using one of these devices. More app and game developers are going to focus exclusively on creating programs for these devices, making the standard computer almost obsolete. We could very well be on the verge of reaching a point where 90% or more of all Internet usage is coming to these mobile devices.

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