UK sees huge mobile web traffic growth

According to a report by Manchester-based Tecmark, mobile web traffic in the UK is growing at an astonishing rate. The report (available for download as a PDF: Mobile and UK Web Traffic) was based on data analysis of a number of websites in various areas, and it included “between 1.5 million and 2.3 million web visits”. When the team first carried out this kind of analysis in late 2009, it found 0.02 per cent of UK traffic was from mobile devices; as of July 2011, mobile traffic accounted for 12.59 per cent.

The report breaks down traffic by platform and, in the case of iOS, by device. The findings show Android and iPad traffic slowly growing, BlackBerry in decline and iPhone traffic — perhaps surprisingly, given media claims that Android smartphones are giving Apple’s device a serious kicking — sharply rising since October 2010.

Tecmark predicts that mobile traffic will be up to 15 per cent by 2012, and it also notes that iOS devices already account for nearly ten per cent of UK web traffic, with the iPhone alone taking a 7.3 per cent share. Of course, the report only covers a subsection of sites in the UK and every site’s traffic is unique; but mobile devices aren’t going anywhere, and Tecmark’s report is another reminder for web designers and developers to decide on a mobile strategy if they haven’t already.

What sort of mobile statistics are you seeing for your websites? What’s your strategy for dealing with smartphones and tablets? Let us know in the comments.