A recent report by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project has indicated the mobile internet usage is higher than many may have thought with an interesting demographic leading the way- African Americans.  Here’s a link to download the full report in PDF format.  Some highlight from the report include:

• One-third of Americans (32%) have used a cell phone or Smartphone to access the internet for emailing, instant-messaging, or information-seeking
• This level of mobile internet is up by one-third since December 2007, when 24% of Americans had ever used the internet on a mobile device.
• On the typical day, nearly one-fifth (19%) of Americans use the internet on a mobile device, up substantially from the 11% level recorded in December 2007
• 48% of Africans Americans have at one time used their mobile device to access the internet for information, emailing, or instant-messaging, half again the national average of 32%
• 29% of African Americans use the internet on their handheld on an average day, also about half again the national average of 19%.
• Compared with 2007, when 12% of African Americans used the internet on their mobile on the average day, use of the mobile internet is up by 141%.

To sum up, Americans are growing  rapidly in their use of mobile phones to access the internet.  Marketers need to be more concerned than ever about how their websites and html emails appear to phone-based clients.  Depending upon the demographics of your audience, their use of the phone to access the web can be growing even faster than the overall survey sample.