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North Americans have officially embraced the
“post-PC era” according to a new report from broadband solutions provider
Sandvine. The company’s Global Internet Phenomena Report for Fall 2011
analyzes user behavior on the Internet to identify trends, and the trend in
several key areas is quickly moving away from traditional personal computers.
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Real-time
entertainment traffic dominates the Web now; and over half of it happens
on devices other than a PC or laptop computer. This according to a new report by
research company Sandvine. The report states that “by volume, 55% of
Real-Time Entertainment traffic is destined for the television (either directly
to a smart TV or via an intermediary like a game console or set-top device), a
mobile device or tablet.” Those statistics, along with data from Mary Meeker’s Web 2.0 Summit presentation last
week, emphasize just how far we’ve come in the post-PC
Real-Time
Entertainment is defined in the report as “applications and protocols that
allow “on-demand” entertainment that is consumed (viewed or heard) as
it arrives.” Examples given include Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Spotify, Rdio,
Pandora and Slingbox.
Looking first at overall traffic – which includes both computers and other devices – real-time entertainment accounts for 60% of peak downstream Internet traffic in North America. There’s been a steady increase in this figure over the past few years. It was 50% in Sandvine’s March 2011 report, 42% in 2010 and just under 30% in 2009.
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For the first time, more real-time home entertainment was delivered to devices like gaming consoles, smartphones and tablets in the United States than to PCs
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Netflix alone accounts for 32.7% of total peak downstream traffic in Sandvine’s latest report, a relative increase of more than 10% since U.S. spring. YouTube accounts for 11.3% of peak traffic |