One-third of PC users are shifting many of their computing activities to "post-PC" devices like tablets and smartphones, a U.S. market research firm says.

PC users are increasingly moving traditional desktop activities to mobile devices, the report by the NPD Group said, and 37 percent of consumers who used to use PCs to access content now do so on their and smartphones.

The research found the two activities that have switched the most from PC to post-PC devices are Web browsing and Facebook, ZDNet reported Thursday.

About 27 percent of smartphone owners have decreased both their Web browsing and Facebook usage on their desktop and notebooks, and the same numbers are holding true for tablet users, NPD Group said.

Despite the shifts in usage preference, the PC remains on top for Web browsing, with 75 percent of PC owners using it for this task compared to 61 percent of smartphone users and 53 percent of tablet owners.

The idea of moving more and more activities from a PC with a smartphone or tablet doesn't bode well for PC makers who are already struggling financially, ZDNet said.

Mobile devices set to outnumber humans
San Jose, Calif. (UPI) Feb 7, 2013 - Smartphones, tablets, laptops and Internet-capable phones will outnumber people on Earth before the end of the year, U.S. networking firm Cisco says.

The increase in the use of smartphones and tablets will see more than 7 billion in use -- equaling the world's current population -- with the biggest growth in use in Asia, the Pacific and Africa, the forecast released by Cisco said.

Much of the increase will be in a class of "machine-to-machine" devices such as Internet-connected monitors for "smart metering," video surveillance, maintenance, building automation and healthcare, the report said.

But mobile devices will continue to lead the proliferation of Internet-connected devices and will put the existing data infrastructure under increasing strain, as smartphones, while making up just 18 percent of the handsets in use globally, currently consume 92 percent of global mobile data traffic.

Tablet computers will see the fastest growth in mobile device adoption in the next five years, Cisco said, growing an average of 46 percent annually, while their data use will more than double from year to year.