The typical employed person, in a wide range of countries, is connected to the Internet nearly 10 hours a day, often by Wi-Fi, with mobile devices used inside the home about 2.5 hours a day, as well, two studies suggest.
An Ipsos survey suggests people who work are connected to the Internet 9.8 hours a day, on average, in Argentina, Australia ,Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia,
Saudi Arabia, South Africa ,South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United States and Hong Kong. The detailed tables are here.
A separate survey conducted by Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) suggests
mobile users are connecting their devices predominantly using Wi-Fi. In fact, most mobile users are connecting their devices using Wi-Fi at some point, including 70 percent of smart phone owners.
About 50 percent of tablets, laptops, and e-readers are connecting exclusively through Wi-Fi. Although 30 percent of smartphone owners are connected only using the mobile network, the remaining 70 percent are supplementing mobile connectivity with Wi-Fi, the Cisco study suggests.
In fact, on average, smartphone users use Wi-Fi a third of the time to connect their devices to the Internet.
With the exception of smart phones, users would prefer to connect all of their devices usingWi-Fi. More than 80 percent of tablet, laptop, and e-reader owners either prefer Wi-Fi to mobile access or have no preference.
Just over half of smartphone owners would prefer to use Wi-Fi, or are ambivalent about the two access networks.
If given a choice between access networks, mobile users choose Wi-Fi over mobile across all network attributes, with the obvious exception of coverage. That leads Cisco researchers to conclude that “we may be on the verge of a ‘New Mobile’ paradigm, one in which Wi-Fi and mobile networks are seamlessly integrated and indistinguishable in the mobile user’s mind.”
The big implication is that device use now is more “nomadic” than mobile; more untethered than mobile; less “on the move” than just “unplugged.” All consumers use their mobile devices at home, averaging more than 2.5 hours of usage in a typical day, more than double the time that
“Mobile” devices actually are used “on the go” about half an hour a day, the study found.