The research firms says that increased WiFi availability and mobile broadband adoption in the country are behind the increasing share of internet traffic flowing to smartphones and tablets.
In the month of August, more than one third (37.2 percent) of U.S. digital traffic coming from mobile phones occurred via a WiFi connection, an increase of nearly 3 points in just the past three months.
On the other hand, tablets, which traditionally required a WiFi connection to access the Internet, are increasingly driving traffic using mobile broadband access. In August, nearly 10 percent of traffic from tablets occurred via a mobile network connection.
Other findings of the report inlcude:
iPads dominate among tablets in driving digital traffic. In August 2011, iPads delivered 97.2 percent of all tablet traffic in the U.S. iPads have also begun to account for a higher share of Internet traffic than iPhones (46.8 percent vs. 42.6 percent of all iOS device traffic).
In the U.S., tablet users display the characteristics of early technology adopters: young males in upper income brackets. In August, 54.7 percent of all tablet owners were male and nearly 30 percent were age 25-34. Nearly half (45.9 percent) of tablet owners belonged to households earning $100K and more.
Nearly 3 out of 5 tablet owners consume news on their tablets. 58 percent of tablet owners consumed world, national or local news on their devices, with 1 in 4 consuming this content on a near-daily basis on their tablets.
Tablets facilitate real-time social networking. Nearly 3 in 5 tablet owners updated their social networking status or commented on others’ status on their device during September, while slightly less than half shared their location using a location-sharing site during.
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