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Ericsson: 4.5 Billion Smartphone Subscriptions by End of 2018
Mobile-data traffic will continue to grow significantly in the coming years. According to latest Ericsson Mobility Report, Video makes up the largest segment of data traffic in networks, and it is expected to grow around 60 percent annually up until the end of 2018. Video consumption is on average 2.6GB per subscription per month in some networks.
Total global smartphone subscriptions hit the 1.2 billion mark in 2012, and are due to reach 4.5 billion by the end of 2018. In addition, 60 percent of the world's population is due to be covered by LTE in 2018.
Report reveals that smartphones accounted for around half of all mobile-phone sales in Q1 2013, compared with roughly 40 percent for the whole of 2012. The number of total mobile subscriptions grew by 8 percent globally year-on-year by Q1 2013. Of those, WCDMA/HSPA added around 60 million subscriptions, GSM/EDGE-only subscriptions grew by roughly 30 million, and LTE added around 20 million new subscriptions. Mobile-broadband subscriptions grew even faster over this period (at a rate of 45 percent year-on-year), reaching around 1.7 billion.
Report is available here.