Mobile Majority
Why a Mobile-First Approach is so Important
Ten years ago, in 2012, over 90% of all website visits worldwide were from a desktop computer while mobile devices accounted for only 9% of all traffic globally.
Amazingly, the iPhone was already 5 years old, as the first version was released by Steve Jobs on January 9th, 2007. While the iPhone was growing exponentially in popularity, and the mobile revolution had started, the Internet was still dominated by desktop users.
It took until November of 2016 for mobile devices to overtake desktop computers as the majority, and it was still a fairly even split in device share up until October of 2020.
October of 2020 was the tipping point where mobile devices exceeded 51%. As of July 2022, mobile accounts for 60.73% while desktop has fallen to 37%. Tablets make up the remaining share and have consistently been between 2-3% of all devices for the last few years.
Now that we are in a mobile majority world, it is important to design our websites from a mobile-first perspective. In the past, we would design the desktop version of a website, and then figure out how to make it work on mobile, often with many compromises along the way.
We’ve had to turn this approach upside down, where we focus first on what the mobile experience will be like and then figure out how to make the layout and design responsive for desktops.
That said, it is important to remember that many current websites were designed and developed before mobile became the majority and could probably use a revisit from a mobile-first perspective.
While many of us still spend our workdays sitting in front of a desktop, we are now the minority. Improving and enhancing the mobile experience for our site visitors should be top priority.
Posted on: 12/06/2022
Posted by: Craig Hauptman – President & Founder
