By 2020, 90% of the world's population over the age of six will have a mobile phone, while smartphone subscriptions are expected to exceed 6.1 billion. At the same time, India and China are experiencing the fastest growth in new mobile subscriptions, with 18 million and 12 million new subscriptions respectively in the third quarter of 2014.
These are some of the findings of the latest Ericsson Mobility Report, a comprehensive source of information on the latest trends in mobile communications based on large volumes of data from commercial networks worldwide, which reveals that the spread of mobile technology continues apace: 90% of the global population over the age of six is expected to have a mobile phone by 2020. Furthermore, smartphone subscriptions are forecast to exceed 6.1 billion by 2020.
The fastest growth in new mobile subscriptions is observed in India and China, with 18 million and 12 million new subscriptions respectively in the third quarter of 2014.
Rima Qureshi, Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer & Head of M&A at Ericsson, said: “Falling device costs, combined with improved usability and increasing network coverage, are the 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 Ericsson Mobility Report shows that in 2020 the world will be connected like never before.”.
Smartphone penetration: 800 million new subscriptions in 2014
The growth of smart phones continues, as 65-70% of devices sold in the third quarter of 2014 were smartphones, compared to 55% for the same quarter in 2013.
Despite the growth in sales, which will continue with the addition of approximately 800 million new smartphone subscriptions by the end of 2014, the report finds that there is still significant room for further growth in the industry. Smartphones currently account for just 37% of all mobile subscriptions, meaning that many users have not yet made the switch to more capable and internet-friendly devices.
The report predicts strong uptake over the coming years, as the number is expected to grow from 2.7 billion smartphone subscriptions today to 6.1 billion in 2020.
Video: the largest and fastest growing segment of mobile data traffic
Video continues to dominate mobile networks: on 4G networks it currently accounts for 45-55% of data traffic, driven mainly by the increase in the use of streaming services and the improvement of the viewing experience on mobile devices.
Video is increasingly appearing as part of other online applications, such as news and advertising, as well as on social media platforms. At the same time, the growth of video streaming is based on access to over-the-top (OTT) services and content, such as those now provided by YouTube.
The devices used to watch video are also changing. Many have large screens, allowing for higher image quality, which is contributing to video consumption on a variety of device types and in greater quantities, both at home and on the go.
Regarding future prospects, Ericsson estimates that the traffic of video content via mobile devices will increase tenfold by 2020, when it will constitute approximately 55% of all data traffic on mobile networks.
5G subscriptions are on the horizon
5G is expected to become commercially available in 2020, and the technology is expected to have a faster penetration than 4G LTE, just as 4G was deployed faster than 3G. The difference is that, in addition to new radio technologies, 5G will also leverage advanced versions of existing networks (3G and 4G), cloud technology, and other core technologies to serve thousands of new ways in which mobile communications will be used. The development of 5G will rely heavily on new use cases, especially machine-to-machine communications.
This is the seventh edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report, which brings together data, forecasts and analysis on data traffic, subscriptions and consumer behaviours to provide a comprehensive picture of current trends in the mobile communications market.
Ericsson regularly performs data traffic measurements on more than 100 active networks, in all major regions of the world. Detailed measurements are performed on a selected number of commercial WCDMA/HSPA and LTE networks, with the aim of discovering different traffic patterns.
The report has been updated with the latest data to provide reliable forecasts for the period 2014-2020.
Source: imerisia.gr
