We all know that smartphones are growing fast around the world, more and more people are switching from feature phones to smartphones. The seventh issue of the Ericsson Mobility Report indicates that by the year 2020 the smartphone subscriptions are expected to top 6.1 billion. Which means that 90 percent of the world’s population over the age of 6 will have a smartphone.
In the third quarter of 2014, almost 70 percent of phones sold were smartphones, up from the 55 percent in same quarter for 2013. India and China show fastest growth for new mobile subscriptions with 18 million and 12 million net additions in the third quarter. According to an estimate 800 million new smartphone subscriptions in 2014 will bring the worldwide count to 2.7 billion by the end of 2014.
Rima Qureshi, Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of M&A, Ericsson, says
The falling cost of handsets, coupled with improved usability and increasing network coverage, are factors that are making mobile technology a global phenomenon that will soon be available to the vast majority of the world’s population, regardless of age or location.
The report finds that there is still plenty of room for growth in the smartphones sector, which currently account for just 37 percent of all mobile phone subscriptions. It means that many users have yet to make the switch from the feature phones to a smartphone.
Ericsson also estimates that, 5G will be commercially deployed in 2020, and the technology is predicted to have a faster uptake than 4G LTE, just as 4G had a faster uptake than 3G.
