The desktop-only world is shrinking. Smartphones are taking over. And that means marketers and advertisers will need to keep building for increasingly mobile-centric video users.
Research
firm eMarketer released new figures this week reporting that there are only
17.9 million desktop- and laptop-only Internet users in the U.S., a dip from 20.3 million the year before. Expect that number to keep declining, eMarketer said.
Meanwhile, the mobile phone is
becoming the “default device” for Web access. That means designing ads and programming content for the smallest screen (as most creators are already doing) is quickly becoming the new
baseline. The number of mobile-only users will reach 52.3 million by 2021, up from 40.7 million this year.
Many users rely on both desktop and mobile. More than three-quarters of Internet users
will access the Web via both a mobile phone and a PC this year, but the growth in mobile-only use underscores the shifting nature of consumer viewing behavior toward the cell phone.
In other
data news, while OTT usage has been growing at a rapid clip, so are cancellations. About 19% of users nix their over-the-top service within the first year, Parks Associates said.
While these churn figures are high,
they don’t seem to be stopping this sector from growing. The key to long-term success for OTT providers will be in developing retention strategies to combat the churn, Parks
said.
Meanwhile, TV consumption on Internet-connected devices, such as Roku, Apple TV and Google Chromecast, rose more than 50% year over year and comprised nearly 10% of total TV viewing for
adults 18 to 49 in January, according to Pivotal Research.