All it takes is one look around the office or the coffee shop and you’ll see face after face buried in their smartphone or tablet.

Mobile device usage is sky-rocketing. But how many people actually own smartphones? What percentage of email is opened on mobile?

Here are 3 mobile stats that you need:

1.) 133.7 million people in the U.S. currently own a smartphone.

According to comScore’s latest report on the U.S. smartphone market, 133.7 million people owned smartphones as of February 2013. Not only is that number huge, but it’s growing. That number is up 8 percent since November 2012 alone, and it now represents 57 percent of the entire mobile phone market.

A few years ago, it was rare to find someone with a phone that could access email: now it’s the norm.

2.) 43 percent of email is opened on a mobile device.

Not only do many people now own smartphones, but many of are using these devices to check their email. In March 2013, 43 percent of all email was opened on a mobile device, according to Litmus. But that number alone doesn’t tell the whole story. For some comparison, mobile opens were at just 10 percent in 2011 — that’s an incredible 330 percent change. And while mobile opens are skyrocketing, desktop opens are going in the exact opposite direction — down 44 percent over the same time period.

3.) 58 percent of marketers say that mobile will affect their email marketing in the next 12 months.

What’s the top item that will affect email over the next year according to marketers in surveyed in MarketingSherpa’s 2013 Email Marketing Benchmark report? ... Mobile.

58 percent of marketers indicated that smartphones and tablets will have the greatest impact on email over the next year, even ahead of social media. How will it affect their emails? Instead of designing emails for large screens, marketers will need to design emails for fingers and thumbs.
What does this mean for you?

All of these stats make it very clear that email is no longer limited to desktops or laptops. This means that you need to create emails that look great no matter where they will be read — on a desktop, a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone. In the email marketing world, we call these mobile-friendly emails.

Sound complicated?

It’s not. It’s actually a lot easier than you might think and you don’t even need any fancy tech skills. Here are 5 Simple Tips for Mobile-Friendly Emails.

Source: Constant Contact - Fresh Insights