Key Features

As in Austria, mobile devices in Belgium don’t yet dominate consumers’ digital lives. But the transition is gaining momentum.

• Desktop/laptop ownership remained widespread in Belgium in H1 2019—above 80% of internet users, according to GlobalWebIndex. More than 83% of respondents ages 16 to 64 owned a PC, compared with 52.4% who owned a tablet. Penetration varied to some extent across age groups for both devices, though, being highest among users ages 35 and older and those living in suburban and rural areas.
• Internet users ages 25 to 44 belonged to the two cohorts in which PC ownership had fallen below 80%. The same was true for affluent respondents (the top 10% ranked by household income) and urban dwellers—groups for whom mobile options are increasingly attractive and affordable.
• Last year, smartphone penetration stood at 88.2% of internet users; that had climbed to 92.3% in H1 2019. Feature phones aren’t entirely obsolete, though. Some 8.4% of respondents in this year’s survey had a feature phone, with ownership concentrated among older users ages 45 to 64 and those with incomes in the bottom 25%.
• The time spent on mobile activities still lagged substantially the time spent with PCs and tablets—as well as time spent viewing broadcast TV. On a typical day in H1 2019, internet users devoted an average of 3 hours, 11 minutes (3:11) to desktops, laptops and tablets, with 2:10 spent with live TV. Mobile time came in at 1:56 daily, just ahead of radio at 1:48.