5.5 billion mobile users by 2022, India to lead
While global mobile penetration is on the rise, Asia-Pacific has become the biggest contributor to the growth in the global numbers. American research firm Forrester predicted over 5.5 billion or 70% of the world's population would have a mobile by 2022, a rise of nearly 100% from 2008. The jump would especially be due to the increasing mobile adoption in India and China.
Android to have the largest market share by 2017
Forrester said the number of global smartphone users is expected to hit 3.8 billion by 2022. The number would cross "the 50% mark for smartphone penetration by population in 2017, and reaching 66% by 2022." About 94% of the smartphone users currently have Android or iOS. By 2017-end, Android would have 73% of the market share while Apple would capture 21% and Windows 4%.
Number of mobile subscribers in India
According to the data recently released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the number of mobile phone users has crossed the one billion subscribers' mark. Except for Bihar (54%) and Assam (56%), all Indian states have more than 60% mobile penetration.
Smartphones to account for 97% mobile data traffic by 2022
India currently has more than 300 million smartphone users thanks to the fast smartphone adoption. While GSM technology dominated the mobile subscriptions in 2016, LTE and WCDMA/HSPA are forecast to account for 85% of the subscriptions by 2022. The 5G technology, expected to be deployed in 2022, is predicted to represent around 0.2% of the subscriptions by the year 2022.
Smartphone and tablet users
According to Forrester: "Large-screen smartphones are contributing to the decline in tablet users: In metro China and India, 65% and 62% of online adult smartphone users, respectively, have a screen size between 5.0 and 6.0 inch."
Consumer adoption to decline while business adoption predicted to increase
Globally, the number of tablet purchases would decline over the next five years. The total tablet user base would decrease at 1.1% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) by 2022, plummeting to 579 million in 2022 compared to 2016's 615 million. While the number of consumer-owned tablets would come down at 3.3% CAGR by 2022, that of business-owned tablets would grow at 6.9% CAGR.
Dramatic shift to high-speed mobile technologies
Another recent report highlighted how Asia-Pacific's mobile industry would contribute to the growth of the region's economy and social development by 2020. The region has been witnessing a dramatic shift to high-speed mobile networks, thanks to the 3G and 4G technologies. Also, Asian mobile operators are set to be among the first ones in the world to commercially launch 5G networks before 2020.
