While smartphones and tablets have begun to take over internet usage in the UK, a new report has found that there was actually a slight decline in the number of purchases made via safe shopping online in the first three months of the year which originated from portable devices.

Econsultancy reports that mobile platforms accounted for 49 per cent of sales during this period, a two per cent reduction compared with Q1 of 2015.

Analysts believe that the reason for this is not that smartphones are becoming any less popular, but rather that tablets are declining significantly.

Manufacturers like Apple have had to put up with the fact that people in the UK and other developed nations are simply not buying as many tablets as they were three or four years ago. And this reduction in demand is being spurred on by the fact that smartphones now offer bigger screens than ever, negating the need for a separate tablet for media consumption, social media and shopping online.

Most experts agree that the reduction in the dominance of mobile devices experienced so far this year is likely to be a minor setback, with smartphone usage continuing to increase and more people shopping through their mobile handsets than ever before.

This month also saw the results of a report from UKOM emerge, which indicate that women are the biggest catalysts in the mobile browsing revolution. Female respondents revealed that they spend nearly half of their time online using a smartphone or tablet.

Meanwhile, men stick to desktop and laptop computers for 61 per cent of their internet access needs, showing that there is a divide in the usage habits based along gender lines. And access to e-commerce is one of the biggest motivating factors that keep women using their smartphones, the report found.