Everyone says mobile is the future of digital. But when they talk about mobile, lots of people still talk about it as something you take with you, on the go.
Your phone is becoming your favorite screen, even when you’re at home
“Mobile” doesn’t equal “on the go.”
Ute Grabowsky / Photothek via Getty Images
Peter Kafka covered media and technology, and their intersection, at Vox. Many of his stories can be found in his Kafka on Media newsletter, and he also hosts the Recode Media podcast.
And that’s true! But mobile is also something you turn to when you’re at home and have plenty of other screens to turn to.
We’ve been tracking this for years. Way back in 2011, for instance, Vevo said that most of the mobile views for its music videos were actually happening in bedrooms and living rooms.
Here’s another data point: Sandvine, a broadband services company, says that 30 percent of internet data usage at home comes from phones and tablets.
Sandvine
That’s up from 20 percent in 2013 and 9 percent in 2012. So you can see where this is going.
But the road to the future isn’t always a straight line. When you think of streaming, for instance, you probably aren’t thinking about Windows PCs. But you should!
Note, for instance, that in the chart Windows machines still account for more data usage than any other kind of device. Ah! You say. Maybe those Windows users are gaming, or spreadsheeting, or doing something else to gobble up all those gigabytes!
Yup! Could be! But also, they are streaming a lot of video. Here, for instance, is Sandvine’s breakdown of streaming machines during one day of NBC’s Olympics coverage this month:
Sandvine
Surprising, no? Now, if Microsoft got itself into the phone business, it might really have something.
Oh. Right.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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