People in Ireland now use their mobile phones more than any other country according to a recent survey.
Another interesting detail is that for the first time, we are now using our phones more for the internet, than for making calls and texts.
The research was carried out by Statcounter, a Dublin based analytics company.
They found that Irish people get more content from their mobile phone than any other country. That means use of the internet for social media, news and games.
The shift of internet usage on mobiles has been huge in the past few years, clearly thanks to the vast improvements in data speed on smartphones.
Three years ago, PCs and laptops accounted for 84% of all online activity in Ireland, compared to 11% for phones. Those figures have now been changed to 57% for computers and 33% for phones.
The other key thing mobiles phones are being used for is videos. Again, Ireland is leading the way. Recently Ooyala, an online video technology company, revealed that Ireland has the highest mobile video viewing figures in the world. A spokesperson said: “Irish viewers have wholeheartedly embraced portables as a primary device, with over 60pc of all video plays happening on mobile phones alone.”
It is not just the internet that mobile phones are taking over.
The large packages of minutes available with most network providers mean that use of landline phones has nosedived. Many people now see having a landline phone an unnecessary cost and have got rid of it altogether. There are 5.8m mobile subscriptions in Ireland compared to 1.86m landline subscriptions.
The trend is only set to continue. Desktop PCs, landline phones and also traditional text messages are all becoming old fashioned as smartphones provide us with a quicker, easier and often cheaper means of getting the information we want.
