Smartphones poised for revolution in media access

Most of the world will be using a smartphone to watch videos and access news in five years’ time and almost two in three dollars set to be spent globally on internet services will be for mobile access not fixed line, says new research.

More than two-thirds of the world’s population will be using smartphones by 2020, according to a report by Ericsson, the Swedish group. It estimates that smartphone subscriptions will double in the next five years to 6.1 billion fuelled by the rapid adoption of mobile internet in emerging markets. “This immense growth will make today’s big data revolution feel like the arrival of a floppy disk,” says Rima Qureshi, chief strategy officer at Ericsson. It points to “mass-scale transformation” of the mobile market owing to an increase in applications and falling costs of devices as the key factors driving connected devices. Overall worldwide mobile subscriptions are set to overtake the global population with a rise from 7.1 billion in 2014 to 9.2 billion by 2020. The growth will lead to new revenues for device makers and telecoms groups that adjust their businesses to provide services for the expansion of mobile, Ericsson said.