Mobile internet use takes off in the US

Over 22 million Americans use their mobile phones to get online on a daily basis

Mobile internet use in the US has undergone a huge surge in interest, and over a third of users are now surfing from a mobile device every day.

Research by monitoring firm comScore shows that US mobile internet users more than doubled to 63.2 million in the 12 months to January 2009, and now represent over a fifth of the domestic population.

Over a third of these users, or 22.4 million people, use their mobile phones to get online on a daily basis.

"Over the course of the past year, we have seen use of mobile internet evolve from an occasional activity to being a daily part of people's lives," said Mark Donovan, senior vice president of mobile at comScore.

"This underscores the growing importance of the mobile medium as consumers become more reliant on their mobile devices to access time-sensitive and utilitarian information."

Mobile access to social networking sites saw a whopping 427 per cent increase, followed by business directories at 161 per cent and financial transactions at 188 per cent. Users accessing news sites more than doubled.

"Social networking and blogging have emerged as very popular daily uses of the mobile web, and these activities are growing at a torrid pace," said Donovan.

"We also note that much of the growth in news and information usage is driven by the increased popularity of downloaded applications, such as those offered for the iPhone, and by text-based searches."

Location-based services look to be taking off as well, logging 8.2 million users over the year. News services via SMS are also seeing rapid take up, with 32.4 million subscribers.