Over three in five mobile users and almost half the total US population will be using Internet on their mobile phones by 2015, eMarketer forecasts.
The market research firm has said that the US mobile Web population is expected to grow 25% this year as 97.3 million mobile owners log on to the Internet from their device at least monthly.
Most of the growth will come from increased smartphone penetration, which will reach 38% of mobile users and 28.8% of the overall population by the end of this year, said eMarketer.
The company also said that the number of smartphone users is set to increase 49.6% this year and continue growing at a steady double-digit pace through 2015, when nearly 150 million US consumers will have such a device.
eMarketer principal analyst for mobile Noah Elkin said, "The rapidly expanding smartphone and mobile internet user populations raise the stakes for marketers and make the mobile web more of an imperative than ever."
Mobile Internet usage is still heaviest among younger adults, with 43.2 million US consumers ages 18 to 34 — or 44.4% of the total — logging on to the mobile Web this year, eMarketer estimates.
Usage is on the rise among older adults as well, however, said eMarketer. This year, the firm estimates 21.5 million 45- to 64-year-olds and 3.7 million seniors 65 and older will use the mobile Internet. By 2015, those numbers is expected to more than double to 45.4 million and 11.3 million, respectively, said eMarketer.
