Over One-Third of American Adults Now Own a Smartphone

It should come as no surprise to anyone that more people are browsing the web from their phones than ever before.  For the past few years, not only have more people decided that smartphones should play an integral part of their daily lives, but those smartphones have gotten better, faster, stronger.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has just released a new study that shows more Americans now own smartphones than have college degrees. 

According to the survey, 83% of Americans own some sort of cellphone and 35% own a smartphone – as defined as running on iOs, Android, Blackberry OS or Windows 7. 

Of those that own smartphones, 87% said that they use it for email or to browse the internet.  68% said that in a typical day they use their smartphones to access the web.  And here’s the big number – A quarter of those surveyed said that they access the internet mostly on their smartphones.  That’s right, for 25% of Americans, the smartphone has virtually replaced the desktop of laptop.
 

How much of your web browsing do you do on your mobile device?  Let us know in the comments. 

These "smartphone mostly" internet users are more likely to be young, non-white women according to the survey.

And using a smartphone definitely makes it more likely that a person will use the phone for browsing the internet.  Only 28% of total cellphone users said that they browse the internet daily on their devices.

The breakdown of smartphone ownership also has definite economic, racial and generational markers. 

The more financially well-off a person is, the more likely they are to own a smartphone.  Of individuals earning over $75,000 a year, 59% reported owning a smartphone.  That figure is 48% when it comes to those with college degrees.

The people most likely to own a smartphone fall into the age range of 25-34.  Race also plays a factor, as 44% of the African-Americans and Latinos surveyed said they own a smartphone. 

Only 30% of the whites surveyed reported ownership.  The research also confirmed that African-Americans and Latinos were much more likely to use their devices for internet browsing, games and multimedia content. 

Finally, according to the study, Android is the most popular platform, followed by the iPhone and Blackberry in a dead heat for second place. 

What’s the takeaway?  Not only are people using smartphones more and more, but they are using them to access the internet.  Some are even solely using their mobile devices to browse the web.  Having an easily browsable, functioning mobile site will become even more important as this trend continues to grow. 

How much importance do you place on your mobile presence?  Let us know in the comments.