Smartphones account for over half of the global mobile market

Smartphones and your business

As the demand increases for smartphone technology, more companies are racing to accommodate the rapidly expanding mobile market. According to a report by Ericsson, smartphones account for 55 percent of global mobile phone sales.

And the increase is expected to continue: “The rapid pace of smartphone uptake has been phenomenal and is set to continue. It took more than five years to reach the first billion smartphone subscriptions, but it will take less than two to hit the 2 billion mark. Between now and 2019, smartphone subscriptions will triple,” stated Douglas Gilstrap, Senior Vice President and Head of Strategy at Ericsson.

Also, as you might imagine, data use is up too, rising 80 percent from last year. Ericsson estimated that by 2019, data use will expand tenfold.

The global rise of smartphones

The report states that the rise of smartphones can be credited to the arrival of lower-priced models emerging in China and India. Gilstrap also stated, “this trend will be driven by uptake in China and other emerging markets as lower-priced smartphone models become available.”

In more mature markets, such as North America and Western Europe, growth is limited and comes from the increasing number of subscriptions per individual (adding tablets or additional lines). High-speed connections, even though quite new globally, grew by 25 million subscribers, bringing the estimated global total to 150 million. Ericsson estimates that by 2019, there will be 2.6 billion subscribers, with 85 percent of these in North America.

Also of note, mobile phones are projected to consume more data this year than tablets, PCs, and other mobile devices. I guess the data proves that now, more than ever before, we are relying heavily on our mobile phones to get the information we need, when we need it. Ericsson states this is the first year that mobile phone data consumption outweighed other mobile device usage. With that statistic in mind, it seems like this just another reason to make sure your business is “mobile-friendly” because the greater portion of consumers are accessing content on-the-go.