Browsing from mobile devices continues to grow rapidly according to a study which shows a 56% increase year-on-year.
The Wave 5 Nucleus Mobile Web Browsing Survey shows mobile browsing is now 32% of all web traffic, a five percentage point rise on January. The study estimates the figure will hit 40% by December.
The research, carried out in June, also shows iOS dominates, with an 84% share of mobile web operating systems although Android has shown the highest growth, 11% of share, because of the popularity of Samsung Galaxy devices.
iPhone browsing is now growing faster than iPad compared with February last year when browsing from tablet devices saw a 12% surge.
Meanwhile, in February this year, iPad accounted for 62% of web browsing possibly linked to the launch of the iPad mini.
Device share growth from January to June this year is as follows:
- iPad (-13.1%)
- iPhone (+14.1%)
- iPod (-22.2%)
- Android (+43.9%)
Of all segments, it is luxury websites that are attracting the greatest volume of users browsing from mobile devices with one site getting almost 43% of users from mobile.
Digital specialist Nucleus recently developed a mobile optimised site for CV Travel and Regent Hotels & Resorts.
In a recent opinion piece for Mobile Marketer, Nucleus boss Peter Matthews says mobile is an untapped opportunity for luxury brands with the mobile experience failing to meet consumer expectations much of the time.
He supports this view by citing figures from eBay which estimates mobile commerce sales of $20bn in 2013.
Research carried out in May by digital marketing agency Greenlight shows 21% of the 2.5m UK online searches for hotels were from a mobile device.
The Wave 5 study was carried out on 11 UK and international websites with a total 1.3m unique visitors.
NB: Mobile devices image via Shutterstock