In 2016, the number of mobile subscriptions overtook the number of people on the planet. Is growth still possible in that sector? What are the predictions? Our expert John Plassard walks you through some interesting statistics.
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Today marks the 50th anniversary of a momentous phone call. On April 3, 1973, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper was standing in a street of New York when he made the first ever call on a true mobile phone, calling his chief rival at Bell Labs, Joel Engel.
Cooper's call was a pivotal moment in the history of mobile communication, as it marked the beginning of a new era.
Today, mobile phones are everywhere, with over 5.4 billion people worldwide having at least one mobile subscription.
In fact, there are now more mobile subscriptions than people on the planet, as the former overtook the latter in 2016.
According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), there were more than 8.58 billion mobile subscriptions in use worldwide in 2022, compared to a global population of 7.95 billion halfway through the year.
In 2023, the number of smartphone users in the world today is 6.92 Billion, which translates to 86.29% of the world’s population owning a smartphone.
Statista predicts substantial growth for all cellular-enabled phones, tablets or IoT devices on a global scale.
The company’s data sources estimate that in the next three years, we’ll see the number of mobile device users increase from 6.378 to 7.516 billion.
Somewhat of a bold prediction, but the World Advertising Research Center believes that due to the growth of smartphone adoption, 72.6% of all internet users will be accessing web pages via a smartphone.
To put this in perspective, 57.14% (2 billion people) of the global smartphone user base exclusively access the internet today through their smartphone.
There are several ways to invest in this growing theme. Do not hesitate to ask our dedicated teams.
Thank you very much. Have a great week, stay safe and keep on winning.