eMarketer: Half of Americans are mobile internet users in 2015

eMarketer predicts that the number of mobile Internet users in the United States will grow by 25% to 97.3 million in 2011. By 2015, more than three-fifths of mobile phone users, or half of the US population, will use mobile Internet.

eMarketer defines mobile internet as users who access the web at least once a month from a mobile browser or app.

The growth of mobile Internet users is mainly driven by the increasing penetration of smartphones. In 2011, 38% of mobile phone users will be smartphone users, accounting for 28.8% of the US population. The number of smartphone users will increase by 49% in 2011 and maintain a double-digit growth trend until 2015, when 150 million Americans will own a smartphone.

Mobile Internet use is very popular among young people. In 2011, 43.2 million Americans aged 18 to 34 will use mobile networks. Mobile Internet use is also increasing among older users. In 2011, eMarketer predicts that 21.5 million Americans aged 45-64 and 3.7 million Americans aged 65 and over will use mobile Internet. By 2015, these figures will be 45.4 million and 11.3 million, respectively.