Mobile usage, be it smartphones or tablets, had been growing steadily, but it the last few years it’s sky-rocketed with many predictions that PC”s and laptops will become a thing of the past much quicker than expected.

Mobile Internet traffic has grown from 1% in 2009 to 15% in 2013 and a figure released by Gartner earlier this month show that PC sales have fallen for the fifth quarter in a row.

Mobile apps have undoubtedly had a huge impact on this. Without them smartphones would be rendered fairly useless,with little more advantage than a better camera and a touchscreen over more basic phones. The emergence of thousands of hugely varied mobile apps makes smartphones and tablets much more appealing. Of course the more smartphones bought the more apps that are likely to bed made too.

Although you’ll still find many who believe it will fade away, here’s my favourite 10 stats which suggest otherwise!

1. Mobile users check their phone on average 150 times a day. (KPCB Internet Trends 2013)
2. Mobile app users are four times more engaged than those surfing the web through a browser. (comScore Mobile Metrix, March 2012)
3. By 2015, mobile app development projects targeting smartphones and tablets will outnumber PC projects by 4:1. (Gartner Predicts, 2012)
4. 140 million iPad units shipped in the first 12 quarters after launch, compared to 50 million iPhones in its first 12 quarters after launch. (KPCB Internet Trends 2013)
5. Almost the same percentage of developers expect to spend the next 6 months building for the tablet, as for the smartphone: 81.34%, compared to 84%. (Appcelerator and IDC Developer Survey, Q2-2013)
6. Developers are building less customer-facing (B2C) apps (down 19%). (Appcelerator and IDC Developer Survey, Q2-2013)
7. Developers are building more business (B2B) and employee (B2E) apps, up from 29.3% in 2010 to 42.7% in 2013. (Appcelerator and IDC Developer Survey, Q2-2013)
8. By 2017, 90% of the enterprise apps will be both desktop and mobile, up from 20% in 2013. (Gartner Predicts, 2012)
9. 63% of developers say enterprise demand for their skills in the past six months has “increased” or “greatly increased,” due to the number of employee apps wanted. (Appcelerator and IDC Developer Survey, Q2-2013)
10. The majority of workers use smartphones to read or view documents, spreadsheets, or presentations, but are much more likely to use tablets for editing activities. (Cisco Systems, 2012)

Image source: Flickr