Mobile Devices Drive Almost 7 Percent of Digital Traffic

According to a report released on Monday by marketing research firm comScore, mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad drive 6.8% of digital traffic in the United States, a result of the growing availability of Wi-Fi throughout the country.

The report, titled Digital Omnivores, explains that two thirds of that digital traffic comes from mobile phones, while the remaining third comes from tablets, and in particular the iPad.

iPads accounted for 97.2% of all tablet traffic and among Apple devices, iPads were responsible for a larger share of Internet traffic (48%) than iPhones (46%).

Helped by their domination in the tablet category, the Apple iOS platform beat out Android in having the highest percentage of connected mobile devices, 43.1% to 34%.

Not only are can Apple boast that it has the most connected mobile devices, but also that those devices were responsible for 58.5% of all mobile traffic. Because Apple's share of mobile traffic is so much higher than its share of mobile devices, comScore suggests that Apple mobile users digest more online content than the average mobile consumer.

This should all come as good news to Facebook who announced on Monday that they are launching both an iPad app and a mobile platform that will cater to Apple devices. 

Facebook has increasingly turned their efforts toward becoming a mobile company, encouraged by their Silicon Valley neighbors like Pandora, whose mobile users made up more than half of their total audience in August. 

Brands like Facebook and Pandora know that users want to consume content wherever they are - on the bus, at the gym, at the park - and not just when they are in front of a computer. If a company can't provide this kind of mobile media, consumers will find another provider who will.

Currently, mobile media is consumed by half the mobile device population (about 116 million people), up 19% from last year, according to the report.

comScore attributes much of that growth to the increasing availability of Wi-Fi, citing that more than 33% of mobile phone internet use and 90% tablet internet use was done on Wi-Fi in August. 

If that correlation proves true, we should expect to see the digital traffic from mobile phones and tablets and consumption of mobile media surge in the next few years as businesses and cities–like New York–continue to roll out free Wi-Fi to consumers. 

So if any brands out there haven't started thinking about developing mobile content yet, you might want to get out the flip-chart and start the brainstorming session now.