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Smartphones to outnumber PCs in 2014
Analyst Benedict Evans used Twitter and the graph shown above to predict the installed based of smartphones will pass the installed base of personal computers early in 2014. Tablets remain a long way behind both.
Evans' chart shows there are slightly more than 1.6 billion PCs out there in the wild. At the moment there are around 1.3 billion smartphones and 200 million tablets. Smartphone and tablet numbers are growing at a healthy clip while PCs are, at best, static.
The analyst is a first to admit the numbers are rough estimates - it's hard to get accurate figures on the numbers of PCs in use - but the big picture is clear. The PC's time at the top of the heap is drawing to a close.
These numbers confirm what website owners are already seeing, traffic from mobile devices is edging ever closer to that from traditional PCs. This site is only five months old. When digitl started publishing in August a little over 25 percent of traffic was from mobile devices, in the last month 33 percent of traffic was from mobile.
[digitl 2013]
Bill Bennett
Freelance journalist.
Auckland-based Bill Bennett writes technology and business stories that are directly relevant to New Zealand readers.
His emphasis is on telecommunications, but he also covers other aspects of technology and business. You can find his features in the New Zealand Herald and hear him regularly on RNZ Nine to Noon and the NZ Tech Podcast.
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