Tablets will soon be generating more web traffic than smartphones

For the current edition of its Digital Index report, Adobe examined the extent to which website traffic and website usage differ, depending on whether the visitor is using a tablet, smartphone or desktop computer. The data indicate that tablets are expected to generate more web traffic than smartphones in early 2013. In addition, users find the web experience on tablets almost as convincing as that on desktop devices.

The results also emphasize the differences between mobile devices: While apps have long proven to be an important and valuable part of a mobile strategy, companies are well advised to invest in optimizing their mobile websites in view of the growing and affluent group of tablet owners.

The proportion of website visits via tablets has grown ten times faster than that via smartphones in the two years since the market launch – the increase was more than 300 percent last year. This rapid increase is based both on the increasing sales of tablets and on the disproportionately large number of website visits via tablets compared to smartphones. Adobe therefore predicts that tablet devices will generate more web traffic than smartphones by early 2013 and that by 2014 they will account for ten percent of all web traffic. Although users find the web experience on tablets almost as convincing as that on desktop devices, they visit websites on PCs three times as often as on tablets.

“While many companies are reviewing their digital offerings as part of a mobile strategy, tablets are becoming the device of choice for users,” said Brad Rencher, senior vice president and general manager, Adobe Digital Marketing Business. Those responsible for digital marketing are therefore well advised to rely on a mobile first strategy and to optimize their digital content and marketing activities with regard to tablets, as users are increasingly demanding this. The current study extends the findings of the previous Digital Index study from January 2012, which showed that tablet users spent more per purchase in 2011 than other online customers. More than 23 billion website visits from 325 companies in North America, Europe (Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Great Britain) were used for the study. and Asia (China, India, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand) included.

www.adobe.de