The web passed print a long time ago in terms of time spent by consumers, but 2011 will be the first year that mobile passes print, according to new estimates by market research firm eMarketer. Time spent on mobile devices is now an average of 65 minutes a day, compared to 44 minutes a day for print (magazines and newspapers combined). Last year mobile and print were neck and neck at 50 minutes each.
Time on the internet was 2 hours and 47 minutes (an increase of 12 minutes from 2010), but TV still dominates with an average of 4 hours and 34 minutes. TV was also able to increase its share of people’s time by 10 minutes. So much for the cord-cutting theory.
Mobile, however, saw both the biggest absolute and percentage jumps in time spent. That additional 15 minutes translates into a 30 percent increase. About 10 percent of the average U.S. adult’s day is now spent on mobile, yet mobile only accounts for about 1 percent of advertising spending. Expect mobile marketers to point out that gap when pitching for a larger share of advertising budgets.
Meanwhile, print still commands an outsized share of ad budgets, taking 25 percent of ad spending, despite dwindling to only 7 percent of time spent with media. That discrepancy won’t last forever.
