Study: U.S. mobile web use growing, but still low


When it comes to accessing the web over mobile devices, Americans are far behind their internet-connected counterparts in Japan, South Korea, and parts of Europe, reports the Associated Press. “We are a third-world country where mobile is concerned. The rest of the world is using mobile phones underground, to pay for a parking space blocks away, to buy a Coke from a vending machine,” said Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for Digital Future at the University of Southern California. “We in America are still having trouble getting our phones to [make calls].” But this is slowly changing. The latest survey from the Center for the Digital Future, conducted last year, found that 25 percent of U.S. internet users went online using their cell phones. That is up from 16 percent in 2008 and 5 percent in 2002. “The mobile phone is the single most valuable device in people’s lives,” Cole said. “It’s becoming a device you use for virtually everything.” On average, people who go online using their cell phones did so for about 2.5 hours a week in 2009, up from 1.7 hours a year earlier. For most, this means getting small spurts of information, such as getting directions or checking who won a sports game…

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