In a typical hour in 2012, Australian desktop users were only spending 14 minutes on social sites, 9 minutes on entertainment and 4 minutes shopping online.

Surprisingly though, 6% of all time spent online in Australia was on news sites, compared to 5% in the UK and 4% in the US. 

This decline in desktop social media time is reflective of the rise in tablet and mobile usage as consumers increasingly spend more time online while on the move. 

In fact, almost 20% of Australian homes has at least one tablet device and 52% now own a smartphone.

Recent research has even suggested that tablet devices will overtake PC’s in popularity as early as next year.

Analyst firm IDC anticipates that desktop PC shipments will fall 4.3% this year while tablets could experience year-on-year growth of 48.7%. IDC is also expecting the smartphone market to grow 27.2%.

All of this highlights, yet again, the importance of having a mobile-ready site that is both easy to access and rich in content. 

It is also vital that marketers ensure campaigns are tailored for better and more effective mobile engagement. 

[Image credit: Johan Larsson]