Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) expects that by 2020, 90 percent of the world's population over 6 years old will have a mobile phone, and smartphone subscriptions by then are expected to top 6.1 billion. For some context, the Swedish vendor expects there to be 800 million new smartphone subscriptions in 2014, bringing the total to 2.7 billion smartphone users worldwide. Those estimates are among the key figures in Ericsson's Mobility Report, in which the company provides its perspective on major developments and trends using data from live networks worldwide.
In terms of other key trends, Ericsson found that in LTE-dominated networks, mobile video currently accounts for 45-55 percent of all mobile traffic, driven largely by increased usage of video streaming and improvements in the mobile video experience. Ericsson estimates that mobile video traffic will increase tenfold by 2020, ultimately making up around 55 percent of all mobile data traffic in 2020.
Ericsson found that India and China are showing fastest growth for new mobile subscriptions, with 18 million and 12 million net additions, respectively, in the third quarter of 2013. Report