Mobile and tablet internet access overtakes desktop devices' access for first time: StatCounter

More people accessed the web from smartphones and tablets than from desktop devices for the first time in October, according to the latest numbers from StatCounter.

According to the company's research division, mobile and tablet devices accounted for 51.3 per cent of internet use worldwide in October as against 48.7 per cent on desktop.

According to The Inquirer, web-enabled smart devices like phones and tablets in developed and emerging regions largely accounted for the figures.

StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen explained that the data highlighted the importance of having a solid mobile web offering.

"This should be a wake-up call, especially for small businesses, sole traders and professionals, to make sure that their websites are mobile friendly. Many older websites are not," he said.

"Mobile compatibility is increasingly important not just because of growing traffic but because Google favours mobile friendly websites for its mobile search results."

People searched Google more over mobile devices, first in October, last year when 100 billion searches were logged a month on average.

Google's tool to test how good or poor a website was for mobile devices, Test My Site launched in June and provides recommendations on what to fix.

According to IDC, mobility was already a core requirement for most enterprise apps, and all consumer-facing apps as also 75 per cent of employee-facing apps would be built to work on a  mobile-first mindset by 2017.

According to Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) statistics for Australia 12.5 million Australians aged 18 and over accessed the internet on their smartphones for both business and leisure in September 2015, while tablet access stood at 7 million.