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World's population connecting to internet in novel ways

With nearly a quarter of the world's population - approximately 1.4 billion people - expected to use the internet frequently in 2008, novel ways of communicating over the web are continuing to gain traction, it has been claimed.

Analyst IDC expects the total number of regular internet users to reach 1.9 billion by 2012, 30 per cent of the world's population. And while PC is currently the dominant means of accessing the web, it forecast that the number of mobile devices connected to the internet will exceed the number of online PCs by 2012.

It also predicted that web 2.0 activities, such as interacting with user-generated content, watching videos, posting blogs and communicating via social networks, will become increasingly popular among internet users

John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC, said: "In this time, the internet has become more deeply integrated into the fabric of many users' personal and professional lives, enabling them to work, play, and socialise anytime from anywhere.

"These trends will accelerate as the number of mobile users continues to soar and the internet becomes truly ubiquitous."

Gartner recently reported that the number of installed PCs worldwide reached the one billion mark in 2008, and is expected to grow at an annual rate of 12 per cent to reach two billion units by early 2014.

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