TECHNOLOGY FOR THE MASSES

Mobile Phone for Everyone on Earth by 2013

Today, Feb. 11, is the red-letter day for the mobile world, as it has reached the milestone of 4 billion connections. Assuming that the world population stays at 6 billion by 2013, on average everyone on the planet Earth will have a handset. People living on less than $2 per day are also potential consumers, says a mobile group.

---

According to Wireless Intelligence, the GSMA's market intelligence unit, the global market will reach 6 billion connections by 2013, as it says that the mobile world has celebrated its four billionth connection today.

Earlier, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a leading United Nations agency for technology issues had predicted that there will be 4 billion mobile subscribers by the end of 2008. 

The growth, GSMA observes, is driven by two main factors: the integration of mobile into previously unconnected devices and subscriber additions in emerging markets. At Mobile World Congress taking place from Feb. 16– 19 in Barcelona, the industry will be exploring ways of sustaining this growth.

Of late, mobile phone makers have been trying to explore new markets to sell their devices because of the slowdown in the traditional markets. Though a number of new devices were introduced in 2008, the market stagnation is expected to persist.

Research firm IDC says that mobile phone market will get affected because of economic crisis and total mobile phone volumes will be 1.9% lower in 2009 than 2008 levels. The researcher expects worldwide growth to be just 7.1% in 2008 before slipping into negative growth in the current year.

Mobile leader Nokia, for example, has been taking various steps to woo the mass-market mobile buyers. A few months ago, the company had released the new software development kit (SDK) for its Series 40 6th Edition mass-market mobile devices. ...Continued

| 1 | 2 | Next Page >>

Related Links

Mobiles Market: Missed Call Will Mobiles get Slow in 2009? Mobiles with Loud Rings in 2008 Net Planet Population Exceeds 1 billion