German households go mobile
November 18, 2013
At the beginning of the current year, 65 percent of Germany's roughly 40 million households possessed at least one mobile computer, the Wiesbaden-based National Statistics Office (Destatis) reported Monday.
The fresh figures showed the number of mobile devices has risen six times the level reached 10 years ago, with the corresponding rate just 11 percent for 2003.
Destatis indicated that it was far too early to announce, though, that desktop PCs were on their way out completely.
Mobility an added value
Some 33 percent of German consumers had both desktop and mobile devices in their homes in early 2013, with 32 percent not possessing a desktop computer and 20 percent of households using mobile devices exclusively.
Back in 2003, some 51 percent of households in Europe's biggest economy only had desktop PCs and no mobile devices at all.
The data on computer use in German consumers are based on a poll of 60,000 households across the nation. Comparable data for the whole of the reunited country have been collected for two decades.
hg/hc (dpa, AFP)