comScore's figures show that during November 2009 and November 2010, email usage has dropped significantly in those under the age of 54, with the Generation Z born after their older Generation Y siblings using email even less.
Surprisingly though, the Generation Y as the 'breakthrough' demographic use email roughly the same amount as their older Baby Boomer counterparts. Many would expect a smooth downwards trend the younger you get, but it seems those in their employment prime between the ages of 35-44 are exploring indirect alternatives to access standard web-based email.
Two things can be taken into account when reading these figures. It monitors web-mail usage, such as Hotmail, Yahoo! and Gmail, but may or may not take into account cloud-based email services like Google Apps for Education and Outlook Live provided by Microsoft's Live@edu. Also, mobile usage of email such as pushed email does not show up on this set of metrics.
In short, with a vast number of variables taken out of the equation, it could mean a couple of things.
What's your thoughts? Is email simply becoming 'less popular'?