If you thought the ubiquity of smartphone usage was immense now then just wait in the next few years as a greater number of people over the age of six will own a smartphone device across the globe.
According to a new report from Swedish telecommunications network gear maker Ericsson, 90 percent of the world’s population over six will have a smartphone by the year 2020, which would generate eight times the mobile traffic.
Roughly 6.1 billion people will maintain smartphone subscriptions in this timeframe, up from today’s 2.7 billion. A great bulk of that significant increase will originate from emerging markets as consumers acquire inexpensive smartphones instead of rudimentary mobile devices.
“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,” said Rima Qureshi, chief strategy officer and head of M&A at Ericsson, in a statement.
The company’s semi-annual Mobility Report also discovered that 90 percent of United States households own at least three Internet-connected devices, while close to one-quarter use at least seven of these same devices. Ninety-seven percent of U.S. households have a mobile phone. The average number of connected devices for each household is 5.2, but that number is projected to climb within the next several years.
Furthermore, total mobile traffic per smartphone in North America is expected to be just under two gigabytes in 2014, and this number could very well reach six gigabytes by 2020. More over, video remains an important facet in mobile networks as nearly half of mobile traffic in regions with concrete 4G networks are dominated by video content.
“Devices used to watch video are also evolving. Many have larger screens, enabling higher picture quality for streamed video, which results in video being consumed on all types of devices and in higher quantities, both at home and on the move,” Ericsson wrote in its report summary.
Indeed, Ericsson isn’t the own private firm to forecast an incredible surge in international smartphone adoption. Last month, Strategy Analytics published a report in which it estimated that 33 billion Internet-connected devices will be utilized across the globe within six years, which amount to an average 4.3 devices for person on Earth. The report noted that conventional devices such as personal computers, smartphones and tablets account for fewer than one-third of all connected devices. Just seven years ago, PCs accounted for two-thirds of Internet devices, but that number has dropped to 10 percent.
As Qureshi noted, the world will be connected like no other time in history.
By 2020, the fifth-generation in mobile phone technology is believed to be released commercially with 5G projected to become faster than 4G. Although it will garner higher data speeds, industry leaders say the latest generation will perform a better job to accommodate an array of connected devices.
