Compare Mobile Phones
Smartphones accounted for 8.5% of January's web traffic
Internet usage through mobile devices has at least doubled each year since 2009. New findings from global data firm StatCounter show that mobile technology - excluding tablets - accounts for 8.5% of web traffic worldwide.
The figure may not seem huge, but when you consider that 12 months ago only 4.3% of surfing activity was mobile, it's actually quite impressive. As more countries around the world adopt smartphones - such as Apple's iPhone and Android handsets - it's likely to keep on growing.
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In the space of just three years, mobile's proportion of traffic has grown by more than 1,200%. But with use of tablets also on the increase, it's likely figures including these devices - such as Apple's iPad or the Samsung Galaxy Tab - would be considerably bigger.
The StatCounter study found that Nokia remains the global leader in mobile internet access. This is due to the sheer number of handsets it has sold across the world since mobile browsing first became possible.
Second on the list was Apple, but for a totally different reason. Far from having sold the most worldwide, Apple's mobile devices - namely the iPhone series of smartphones - rank so highly because each individual user tends to consume a much larger amount of mobile data.
The Top 5 was completed by Samsung, RIM - which manufactures the BlackBerry range - and HTC, which follow Nokia and Apple in that order, in terms of how much web traffic their respective handsets are responsible for.
Last month, a report by search giant Google, which powers the Android mobile operating system, found that 45% of the UK population now owns a smartphone.
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