Mobile Devices Solutions

Mobile phones are expected to be in the hands of 66% of the world’s population by 2022, with mobile device usage slated to reach 5.5bn users by then.

That is almost double the total number of users (2.8bn) in 2008, according to a report by Forrester, with up to 3.8bn new users predicted during the next five years, crossing the 50% mark for smartphone use by population in 2017.

The report noted that smartphone use is expected to increase particularly in Asia and Latin America, which remain major growth areas for mobile subscribers.

While smartphone subscribers surpassed feature phone subscribers in 2014, nearly 1.2bn people still used feature phones as their primary phone in 2016, which makes feature phones still attractive, the report noted.

“Nokia relaunched the iconic feature phone 3310 to address this market in Feb. 2016, targeting emerging markets like India,” Forrester analysis’s report. Meanwhile, “India remains the fastest-growing market for smartphone subscribers, followed by Vietnam and Nigeria. We expect that by 2020 around 433m subscribers will still be using feature phones as their primary phone.”