Can you still remember the days when the smaller phone you had, the better? Now it seems like the line between a smartphone and a tablet is getting thinner and thinner, and bridging the two is what we’ve been calling the “phablet”. The latest report from the Adobe Digital Index was unveiled at the ongoing Mobile World Congress today and the major takeaway is that tablet traffic is steadily decreasing, specifically among the countries in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa).
But of course mobile is continuing to boom as the top 7 countries in the EMEA saw an 11% growth in mobile visits. But what they use to browse the Internet is the one that’s changing, as we are seeing a sharp decline in tablet traffic. The biggest drop was in Saudi Arabia that saw a 25% decrease while the UK saw 1.9%. What people are now using to scour through the net is of course their smartphones which used to be just for apps and texting and calling.
Because screens are getting bigger and bigger, users now would rather have just one of those phablets instead of a smaller screen device and a separate tablet. And because of the bigger screens, these smartphones are turning into both a “lean forward” and “lean back” device. Meaning, they use their smartphones both for the more serious “traditional desktop setting” of the former and the more infotainment purposes of the latter.
Saudi Arabia is one country in the EMEA where mobile is positively exploding. At the beginning of 2015, 49% of traffic came from mobile and by the end of the year, it rose to 61.9%. This is probably because they are a rich country and so they have access and would spend money on the latest smartphones, which happen to have bigger screens. As expected, China’s mobile usage continues to grow, seeing a 50% increase in mobile browsing, and showing a shift as well from tablet to a proper smartphone/phablet.
SOURCE: ADI
