From the world’s largest continents to island nations like Antigua and Barbuda, the smartphone has become the most popular consumer electronics device in the world. These small mobile devices have delivered the internet into the hands of those who wouldn’t get an internet connection through other means. We discuss that and more below, explaining why the smartphone is our primary source of online entertainment.
Mobile Phones & The Internet
The popularity of smartphones, and mobile phones more generally, can be attributed to three things – communication, accessibility, and the internet. Let’s start with the last one since it isn’t unique to smartphones but has quickly become our main way of surfing the web. When mobile phones were upgraded to smartphones, they enabled people across the world to carry the internet in their pockets.
This was appealing for many reasons, from searching for answers to questions instantly and engaging in online entertainment industries. Over time, video-streaming and iGaming have ensured that smartphone users can fight boredom wherever they are. Websites in sectors like iGaming have specifically made their sites compatible with online bingo on mobile, with some also offering apps that integrate into Android or Apple OS menus. In video streaming, Netflix does the same by having an app specifically for mobile and handheld devices.
This access to the internet, combined with the convenience of a mobile phone, puts smartphones in the hands of everyday people across the globe. In Antigua and Barbuda, which has 95% internet penetration on par with the United States, there are 90,000 online users as of 2023. However, there are 198,000 mobile connections in that population – 210% of the population.
This is common in countries that have accepted smartphones, typically due to people owning multiple. For example, the United Kingdom is another island nation and one of Europe’s fastest-growing tech economies and, from a 66 million population, there are 87 million mobile connections.
In 2016, online searches conducted on mobile passed desktop computers for the very first time. The gap has been widening since, starting in ten countries including typical tech leaders like the US and Japan. However, more countries have been added to that list over time and the share of mobile vs computer-led searches has flipped to 65% mobile against 35% desktop.
Mobile Phone Accessibility
There are many ways to access online entertainment, so why are smartphones the most popular? Starting with the simple but effective reasons, their portability makes them the only search-enabled device that you can carry in your pocket. While larger tablets have since entered the market, they still don’t have the pocket portability smartphones have. They make all internet content on-demand since it can be instantly pulled up on the phone.
This is a shift that was seen with communication, which initially saw mobile phones take off. Using a mobile meant that people weren’t constricted to landlines and other stationary ways of communicating with one another. Smartphones doubled down on that unrivalled convenience by offering SMS but also internet access, which meant online communications like email, social media, and RCS encrypted chats could be managed by phone.
What’s said in the group chat stays in the group chat. Now ALL of your RCS conversations in Messages by Google are end-to-end encrypted. Learn more here: https://t.co/GidtPqGOP2 pic.twitter.com/m4ci7t9IHG
— Android (@Android) August 9, 2023
They’re also more user-friendly than computers for the average person. They need minimal maintenance and are painstakingly designed to be sleek and simple, a longtime obsession with leading Silicon Valley tech businesses like Apple. Apps are easy to install and use, so even the most non-committed user can reap their benefits.
Lastly, they are cost-effective. While some handhelds are exorbitantly priced, there are cheaper smartphone alternatives that have become a hit in third-world nations. In those nations, web infrastructure is lacking and getting a desktop is too expensive. Smartphones often fill that gap, bringing online entertainment and knowledge to people who wouldn’t have been able to access it in the past.
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