Report: Mobile Internet Usage Doubles, Nokia Still Top Mobile Vendor

Mobile internet usage doubled from 2011 to 2012, continuing a four-year trend in which mobile usage at least doubles with each successive year.

By January of 2012, 8.5 percent of global Internet traffic was generated on mobile devices, up from 4.3 percent in January of 2011, according to StatCounter Global.

In the same month in 2010, 1.6 percent of Internet usage came from mobile devices, and in 2009 a mere 0.7 percent of Internet traffic came from mobile.

The statistics chart an accelerating trend, where powerful smartphones are quickly becoming go-to devices for accessing the Internet. (These statistics do not factor in tablet devices.)

Of the mobile vendors, Nokia phones still generate the most Internet traffic (37.67 percent), a position held, according to StatCounter Global, on account of the company’s ubiquity in India.

Apple generates the second highest numbers with regard to worldwide Internet usage (28.67 percent). Also, Apple leads in the US and UK.

Notably, one of the biggest losers in mobile Internet traffic was BlackBerry maker RIM. In January of 2011, RIM generated 18 percent of all worldwide mobile Internet traffic. By January of 2012, that percentage had slid to 8.3 percent.