One trend of note: the ascendency of the smartphone as consumers' preferred means of accessing the Internet.
- In 2011, the first year for which device-specific data is available, most consumers – 45 percent – used a desktop computer, followed closely by a laptop at 43 percent. Only 27 percent used a smartphone.
- By 2015, the smartphone had become the most used device at 53 percent, the laptop remained relatively steady at 46 percent, while the desktop had dropped to 34 percent.
- In the most recent survey, the use of smartphones increased to 68 percent, 21 percentage points more than laptops (47 percent). Desktops, at 28 percent, trailed both smart TVs (41 percent) and tablets (30 percent).
The Free State Foundation argued in comments filed on April 27 in The State of Competition in the Communications Marketplace proceeding that:
Smartphones, to an extent that differentiates them from other categories of devices, are able to access, and seamlessly transition between, mobile broadband data offerings and – via Wi-Fi – wireline high-speed Internet access. The increasing degree to which consumers rely upon smartphones to go online therefore further suggests that wireless and wireline broadband services indeed are functional substitutes.[T]he Commission should move beyond its traditional siloed approach to competition policy by making substitution findings for broadband Internet services [and] adopt a broader product market definition for broadband Internet services that takes into account functional similarities and intermodal competition between wireless and wireline broadband services.
Posts
