If I was to send you a smoking hot email offer for a free iPad right this second, what kind of device would you open it on?

According to ReturnPath, the answer is most likely a mobile device. In fact, the number of emails opened on mobile devices has freaking TRIPLED over the past year. Crazy.

But it’s good to know that we’re not the only ones beating the mobile email drum…

When Return Path released our last mobile study in April 2012, the number emails opened on smartphones was about to overtake opens from both desktop clients and webmail. Seven months later, our newest study finds that users in the U.S. and Canada largely check email from their phones. – ReturnPath

Drilling deeper into the study. You’re most likely to open emails on your smartphone… your iPhone, actually. Because a whopping 85% of all mobile email opens occur on Apple devices… and 75% of those opens happen on iPhones.

Overall, the iPhone has a 56% share of all mobile email opens. That’s exactly why so many of us at Digital Marketer have been urging you to test your emails on mobile devices (especially those running iOS)!

And here’s something you probably didn’t expect, the term “mobile” is largely a misnomer. In this study, ReturnPath found that “mobile” devices have become the preferred way to check email — even when they’re sitting at home.

If you think about your own email habits, you can pretty much verify that this is the case. There you are, sitting at your desk at work, your phone dings… and you check your email.

As you can see, mobile is no longer synonymous with someone that’s “on the go.” According to ReturnPath, Mobile devices are now the preferred device on which to receive emails — especially retail emails.

Desktop holds an edge when it comes to banking emails and other secure information, but I bet it won’t be long before that shifts as well…