Smartphones and tablets have overtaken computers in popularity because of the way they enable you to live your life without interruption, rather than around your desk at home or in the office. With mobile internet, email, social networking and cloud storage, you can carry out most of the tasks that you can on a computer … but in a café, out shopping, in the park, working away from the office or anywhere around or outside the house,

And because of where you can use your device, the risks from using it online can also be greater than those from using your home or office-based computer.

“The vast majority of retailers reported conversion rates on smartphones were around 1%, while conversion rates for tablets were 2.4%,” said Husson. “Clearly, smartphones are much lower in terms of conversion rates than tablets. So if you don’t optimize for both the mobile and tablet experience, you will face a challenge.”

“The kind of content and services being accessed by smartphone and tablet users are very different,” Husson said.

While visitors largely use tablets for what he called “lazy internet”—consuming media and content, as well as browsing—they tend to prefer smartphones primarily for communication, content snacking, and using mobile apps.

Husson pointed to another important distinction between the devices: when and where consumers use their smartphones and tablets.