Not surprising: More mobile Internet users than wired in Japan

Just saw this in Infoworld (see link below). It’s not surprising. We all know that the mobile will pass the PC in accessing the Web.

It is interesting how many folks use both, but that is also expected. To me, the more interesting number is of those folks who only use the mobile for Web access: 20,6 million. Thems a lot of apples.

Now, my suggestion, is to look at these numbers; realize that Japan is a very connected country; and adjust all user estimates for your service accordingly – these numbers give you some upper limits.

I am also pretty sure that Europe or APAC will be next in crossing this milestone – more mobile than PC access. But, I tend to think that the percentage of mobile-only access will be less.

Does anyone have any good stats on PC vs. Mobile Web Access in other regions?

Link: More mobile Internet users than wired in Japan | InfoWorld | News | 2006-07-05 | By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service.

The number of Internet users in Japan accessing from cell phones exceeded those using it from personal computers in 2005, according to a government report published Tuesday.

At the end of the year there were 69.2 million people using the Internet from mobile devices, compared to 66 million conventional PC users, the Ministry of Information and Communications’ annual "Information and Communications in Japan" white paper said. Of these two user groups, 48.6 million use both a mobile device and a conventional PC, it said, giving Japan a total Internet population of 85.3 million users. That’s equivalent to two in every three people in the country.