 Growth has never been so fast for any technology: According to a study released by Informa Telecoms & Media, there will be 4 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide, by the end of this year. The 3 billion mobile subscribers bar was passed in 2007, it has taken just 5 quarters to reach the 4 billion mobile subscribes, says Informa principal analyst, Nick Jotischky. Most of the growth came from emerging markets, with tremendous consumer demand seen in developing countries like China and India, which each delivered more than 50 million new mobile subscriptions in the last six months alone. But this growth rate is set to slow: Informa anticipates the 5 billion bar will only be passed in the final months of 2011. By this time, worldwide mobile penetration will be in excess of 70%, and only in Africa will penetration remain below 50%. "It is clear that the mobile industry will see a slowdown in growth - it is simply untenable for the extraordinary growth witnessed over the last 18 months to continue," said Informa principal analyst, Nick Jotischky. "Even taking the fastest growing regions of Asia Pacific and Africa into account, where we will see well over 20% year on year growth in subscription numbers this year, our forecasts suggest that this growth rate will slow to below 10% in 2010."
|
