Desktop is NOT, I say again, NOT Dead

[iamlost]

I think that this needs to be said. Again.

Desktop use has NOT declined.
Note: numbers are for US market only and for adults (18+) only.

What has happened over the past decade, since the advent of the now ubiquitous smartphone, is that desktop's relative percentage for internet use has declined...
however,
I say again: it's absolute use has remained pretty much constant.

Put another way, mobile internet usage time has been added to the mix, it has grown the pie to make room, it has not 'stolen' it's space.
Note: granted, individual usage varies widely; we are comparing broad demographic behaviour.

Back in 2008 desktop internet usage was an average 2.2 hours/day.
In 2015 it was at 2.4 hours.

Back in 2008 mobile internet usage was 0.3 hours (18 minutes)/day.
In 2015 it was at 2.8 hours.

Back in 2008 the average internet usage was 2.7 hours/day.
In 2015 it was 5.6 hours.

The pie grew larger as mobile usage became an addition not a subtraction.

Actually, the desktop portion has grown, not just that 0.4 hours (24 minutes) more a day average
BUT
also because the total adult population of the US has increased since 2008: 230 million to 2015: 247 million; an additional 17-million adults.

Or a resounding additional 6,800,000 MORE hours of desktop internet usage per day in 2015 than in 2008.

Yes, mobile has been a mind-boggling success, it has transformed, it has disrupted, it has become both pervasive and ubiquitous.
BUT
It has not relegated desktop internet usage to the scrapheap. Desktop computing has simply matured and plateaued; something that mobile is showing signs of doing soon as well.

The critical point for webdevs is not that mobile has, necessarily, supplanted desktop, rather it is an additional medium of connection. Each niche and site has to decide how much of what sort of device has been, is, and may possibly be used by visitors to do whatever series of interactions. And adjust accordingly. A business decision.

However, it is critical to remember that something new has been added, not necessarily that something has been removed or replaced. Do try not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[piatkow]

I can't comment on the total figures but I do know that my own mobile use is in addition to desktop use not instead of.

[keyplyr]

It depends on what stats you're looking at.

The work force certainly uses more (desktop) computers and there are more people working because there are more people. This alone keeps the desktop demographic higher.

However, in comparison, people are not buying desktop comuters for *home* use at the rate they were 10 or 15 years ago. There's no need. They can do their email, social media, web surfing and texting from their phones... and from anywhere they may be.

Also, schools are not buying desktop or even laptop computers for their students hardly at all now that they have so many choices in tablets.

New desktop OSs have helped keep desktop alive by supporting many of the popular apps.

Desktop is not dead and I have never seen any evidence supporting that it is, but there's a reason why the mobile search index has replaced desktop as the main indicator, especially with local search.

[lucy24]

Exactly. The question, however, is what you want to do about it.

In year A, {number} of people walked to your store, and {much smaller number} drove.

In year B, the number of pedestrians has remained constant, but the number of drivers has increased enormously.

It's your choice whether you want to do something to cash in on the new pool of vehicle-based customers--and whether you want to do so in addition to, or at the expense of, your existing pedestrian traffic.

[keyplyr]

A big difference between desktop & mobile is location. Mobile makes significant use of GPS. Walk-in customers often tell me my business showed up on their devices as being close by. That doesn't happen on desktop.

I do most of my *real* work on a desktop computer, but I also have a computer/tablet hybrid (Windows Surface) that I use when not in the office, but that requires sitting down somewhere and setting it up w/ keyboard, so while that's fine for the hotel room, if I'm out & just checking numbers or looking at WW, it's from my mobile phone.

I now make most all purchases from mobile, but sometimes do related research from desktop.

So many people don't have a desktop at home. IMO if you don't have a mobile presence that actually works as a business, you're now irrelevant.

[iamlost]

'Irrelevant' is rather over the top. Depending on audience and niche and whether b2c or b2b desktop can still be a strong to dominant visitor device.

I have my sites in four languages and despite same content the desktop/mobile breakout differs with each.

The switch to mobile mantra, especially with Google saying a mobile first index is on the way, has given a perception that mobile has or is about to replace desktop. While that is certainly true in specific instances in broad measure terms it definitely is not.

I really liked Lucy's metaphor that describes well the business decision facing webdevs I mentioned in passing. Yes, a usable mobile presence, mobile beneficial user experience is pretty much necessary the same is largely still true for desktop users.

I'd like to think that webdevs understand that designing for the users of both (and more) categories of user devices is what is necessary and that 'responsive' by itself is at best barely adequate. Contextual delivery is here somewhat and looming over the next few years.

To do that you need to start with broad numbers as in OP and then understand the differences, trajectories, and velocities of one's existing and prospective market audiences.

Mobile is just the start of the changes facing webdevs in the next 5-years. As it has been for the past five for those who were/are ahead of the herd.

[keyplyr]

'Irrelevant' is rather over the top

Irrelevant to the mobile index, which is now an overall ranking factor.