NPD: 37% of PC users have switched to a smartphone or tablet to browse the Internet and check Facebook

It’s a widely accepted trend: as more and more consumers adopt more and more mobile devices, certain activities on the PC end up transitioning over. In fact, 37 percent of consumers who used to access content on their PCs have already switched to doing said activities on their tablets and smartphones.

The latest finding comes from NPD, which says the top two activities that consumers are shifting from their PCs to their tablets and smartphones are Web browsing and Facebook. Rounding out the top three on tablets is playing games and reading books, while on smartphones it’s uploading photos:

The difference in the number three spot makes sense: a bigger screen makes the tablet activities easier while a better camera means smartphone users take more photos. This is not to mention that anyone taking a photo with their tablet looks like a total idiot, but I digress.

If you’ll notice, however, there is no content creation in the chart above. One could argue that photo uploading is not consumption, but the other activities certainly are. That’s the PC’s role, and it likely won’t be changing anytime soon.

Let’s break down the 37 percent number further. 27 percent of tablet owners say they are using their PC less frequently for accessing the Internet while 20 percent say they are using their PC less frequently for accessing Facebook. On the smartphone side, it’s more equal: 27 percent have decreased both their Internet and Facebook usage on their PCs because they now use their mobile device for these activities.

All that being said, the PC isn’t dead. Internet browsing is still highest among PC owners at 75 percent, smartphones at 61 percent, and tablets at 53 percent, while Facebook interaction follows the same rank with PC owners at 63 percent, 55 percent for smartphone owners, and 39 percent among tablet owners.

This year, we think, that standing is going to get flipped upside down.

See also – Facebook’s mobile ad revenue made up 23% of its total ad revenue in Q4, worth $305 million and Facebook passes 1.06 billion monthly active users, 680 million mobile users, and 618 million daily users

Image credit: Toshifumi Kitamura/Getty