updated 02:30 pm EST, Sun February 12, 2012
comScore shows shift to mobile in mail
As part of a larger study, comScore has shown that e-mail is making a large shift away from the web. Among teens and those aged 18 to 24, webmail use dropped by about a third in December from where it was one year earlier. Declines also appeared among the 35 to 44 set (down one point) and 55 to 64 (by seven points).
The research group directly attributed the decline to the rising adoption of mobile devices. Most of the younger group have been growing up with not just smartphones but smartphone-level MP3 players like the iPod touch and tablets like the iPad. While mobile versions of mail sites like Gmail exist, they're often unneeded with native apps that are usually faster and can check mail in the background.
The move could be a "permanent shift," comScore suggested, since it was unlikely that desktops would see a resurgence. IDC data has shown tablets outselling PCs in the US, while smartphones now outsell PCs even when including tablets in the PC category.