Smartphone adoption forecasted to reach 5.6 billion by 2019

[Shawn Knight]

Smartphones have exploded in popularity in recent years but if you thought growth had leveled out, you’re dead wrong. According to the latest mobility report from communications technology company Ericsson, smartphone growth is forecasted to continue to balloon through at least 2019.

In the company’s latest quarterly sales report, Ericsson found that 55 percent of all handsets sold worldwide were smartphones. Even still, smartphones represent just 25 to 30 percent of all active mobile phone subscriptions.

Over the next six years, however, smartphones are expected to account for 60 percent of all mobile phone subscriptions. To put that into perspective, Ericsson envisions 5.6 billion of the 9.3 billion phones in use by 2019 will be smartphones. The primary reason for the continued growth will be the proliferation of smartphones in China and similar emerging markets, the company noted in the report.

The influx of smartphones on the market will no doubt have an impact on mobile data traffic. Ericsson believes smartphone traffic will increase 10 times over between now and 2019. To help support this experience, wireless carriers will need to continue to roll out speedy networks.

According to the report, WCDMA/HSPA networks are predicted to cover 90 percent of the world's population by 2019. What’s more, almost two-thirds of the world's population will be covered by 4G/LTE networks during the same time frame.

Are you still hanging on to a feature phone or do you know someone that is?

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https://www.techspot.com/news/54651-smartphone-adoption-forecasted-to-reach-56-billion-by-2019.html

 

[misor]

Yes, I believe in the projection.
many ordinary people I know have two or more low-cost smartphones (3000 to 7000 Philippine pesos) while some rich people I know even have three to four high-end smartphones (Samsung galaxy note 3, Samsung galaxy s4, iphone)

I'm using a two-year old cheap Samsung galaxy y. with more than twenty five typhoons hitting the Philippines per year, my old reliable nokia 7210 feature phone is the only backup (~five days standby power) I need.

 

[Guest]

Yes, I believe in the projection.
many ordinary people I know have two or more low-cost smartphones (3000 to 7000 Philippine pesos) while some rich people I know even have three to four high-end smartphones (Samsung galaxy note 3, Samsung galaxy s4, iphone)
I'm using a two-year old cheap Samsung galaxy y. with more than twenty five typhoons hitting the Philippines per year, my old reliable nokia 7210 feature phone is the only backup (~five days standby power) I need.

+1000000000 for having a Nokia

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I've had a mobile phone since '96 and since then till now I've had a good few phones, most of which I still have including my first feature phone which was a Samsung Star & smartphone which was a Blackberry 8250. I even have my first phone ever phone which was a Motorola 7500. All in all I must have about 7 vintage phones in my collection.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

I went back to a dumb phone myself... I tried out a Droid 4 for two years but I just don't think the cost is worth it. I have internet access at home and at work, I don't spend much time between those places and when I do I plan ahead. Granted there are occasions where it is convenient to be able to access the internet from anywhere, but it doesn't happen often enough to justify the cost in my situation.