The swift rise of mobile is one that is enviable by many other industries. No other industry has so quickly increased in popularity and spread on a worldwide range like the mobile phone business. From the bulky cell phones or yesterday to today’s popular Apple iPhone and Samsung smartphones, no other technology has spread to saturate a worldwide market quite as fast.
With that being said, it is worth looking at the numbers. At this point in time, there are 6.8 billion cell phone subscriptions worldwide. This includes the Western world, the East and plenty of areas in the world that are still considered to be developing countries.
Mobile technology has certainly evolved throughout the years. As early as 1918, devices similar to mobile phones were used on German military trains. In 1926, similar devices were offered to first class passengers on trains and by the German Reichsbahn and mail service. Five years later, in 1931, Erich Kastner included mobile phones in a children’s book. In 1940, mobile phones were made available in luxury cars in large cities in the United States. Twenty one years later, in 1961, Soviet engineer Leonid Kurpriyanovich presented a handheld mobile device. In 1973, Motorola introduced a handheld mobile phone. In 1978, 1G service began, followed by 2G service in the 1990s, then 3G service got its start in 2001 and finally, in 2009, 4G service began rolling out.
In incredible numbers, there are now 96 cell phone subscriptions for every 100 people on the planet Earth. Mobile saturation can be seen on every continent in the world, with the top being North America at 170. Even in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is considered a developing part of the world, boasts 63 subscriptions for every 100 people. In fact, the developing world is quickly increasing its number of cell subscriptions each year.
The saturation of mobile broadband users in the developing world is also increasing. Sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia-Pacific region boast 20 percent of this saturation. The developed world, on the other hand, has 48 percent saturation in terms of mobile broadband users.
Mobile commerce is increasing as well. At this time, one quarter of mobile users are relying on their devices for online shopping. One fifth of consumers actually use their mobile devices to make purchases. As a result, mobile payments have jumped from $105.9 billion in 2011 to $171.5 billion in 2012.
Source: BestComputerScienceDegrees.com
