Response: At Home and with Computer Access

Summary:

The primary topic discussed in ‘At Home and with Computer Access’ was mobile usage. It discussed HOW users were using their mobile devices to access the Internet. The general results were that people most often used their phone for mobile access instead of their computers and that the most frequent location for cell phone Internet was at home. A deep analysis isn’t performed by the researchers, but does a small breakdown into the reasons for choosing mobile devices to access the Internet. Reasons included the lack of an available computer, convenience and laziness. Also broken down were the purposes for accessing Internet from a mobile device. These also included reading news, passing time and checking email. Overall however, a deeper analysis was not given, but the results indicated that

Response:

To me, this paper merely stated the obvious, that mobile device usage is increasing and is now the biggest method of consuming content on the Internet. The rise of mobile devices has been significant in the last 10-15 years. My one criticism of this paper was that the WHY content was accessed more by mobile devices than not. I think if the researchers examined the content, they could have found more interesting results. For instance, for some content, it is significantly easier to access and view information with a mobile device than a traditional desktop. Accessing news with the iPad (with magazine type apps) or sports videos (with a mobile application) is significantly easier and a better user experience than sitting on a desktop and doing the same. Thus, it is my belief that is CONTENT that is making this shift and not as much the availability of Internet for devices itself. Content is king, as they say.