Mobile Report: Share of tablet users increases sevenfold

While more than one in four online users were already surfing via smartphones & co. in 2010, according to Net-Metrix it is currently almost one in two internet users. Tablet users have made significant gains, with their share already reaching 7.8% of Swiss online users after one and a half years. The initial double-digit growth rates are now levelling off somewhat for the first time, but the increase still represents a significant increase of more than 9% compared to summer 2011. This means that 2.5 million Swiss people are already using small-screen devices on the Internet. These include the device categories of internet-enabled mobile phones/smartphones, MP3 players/iPods/PDAs and personal organizers. The group of SSD heavy users is also growing significantly: around 28% of online users, or 1.5 million people, now use these devices on the web every day or almost every day. This means that the proportion of SSD heavy users has doubled since 2010.

Tablet users are often online

The proportion of tablet users, i.e. online users who visit the web via tablets and eBook readers, has grown by 35% in the last six months. Since 2010, the group of tablet users has even increased sevenfold and currently comprises over 400 thousand Swiss citizens, accounting for 7.8 percent of online users. Internet use via tablets and eBook readers is not only becoming increasingly popular, but this group also visits the web very frequently: Almost 60 percent of tablet users go online with their tablets or eBook readers every day or almost every day and around 86 percent are online once a week or more often with such devices.

Is the growth in Internet usage via small screen devices & tablets at the expense of other mobile devices? For laptops, notebooks and netbooks, this question can be answered in the negative for the period under review since 2010: Around 50 percent of online users still also use traditional laptops & co. to visit the web. It (still) seems to be the case that more and more devices are being used to visit the Internet. This assumption is supported by the general trend in the number of devices used to access the internet. The proportion of users who only use one device to visit the web has fallen by 20% since 2010. Conversely, the group of users who use three or more devices for the Internet has grown by over 36%.

Study description and reference Mobile Report
The Mobile Report provides detailed socio-demographic basic information and usage data on mobile internet users and in particular on users who surf the web via so-called small screen devices such as smartphones and the like. From 2011-1, data on the use of mobile Internet applications such as e-mail, mobile browsers or so-called applications (apps) will be collected. From the 2011-2 report, the tablet user break is available, which allows a specific analysis of online users who use Internet services via tablets or eBook readers.

Basic population The basic population of the study consists of people aged 14 and over who are resident in Switzerland or the Principality of Liechtenstein, who have used the Internet at least once in the last 3 months and who can communicate well enough in one of the national languages German, French or Italian to take part in an online survey.

Type of survey Online interviews, invitation by e-mail after telephone recruitment Sample size Switzerland and Liechtenstein as a whole: 3,066 interviews Quota sample according to specifications from the Net-Metrix-Base 2011-2 study Survey period November - December 2011