1. The no. of mobile subscriptions is equal to 77% of the world population….
If your grandma is still refusing to pick up a mobile phone this Christmas, she’s in an ever declining minority. 90% of us now live within access of a mobile network which has led to a whopping 5.3 billion mobile subscriptions by the end of 2010 which is equivalent to 77% of the global population.
2. Which means that there are more mobiles than toothbrushes…
Shocking, perhaps, but true.
In October, the president of the Institution of Engineering & Technology, Mike Short, predicted that by the end of 2012 there will be more mobile devices than people.
Whilst most people took that in their stride, what really seemed to shock people was his next stat, that there are already more mobiles in the world than toothbrushes.
Although Short was referring to mobile subscriptions – some people have more than one device- it’s still a pretty surprising statistic and, if you don’t believe it, check out this great investigative article in which 60 Second Marketer contributor, Nicole Hall, sets out to prove or disprove the toothbrush theory.
3. We are using those devices to text like crazy
If you’ve ever sat on a train and been annoyed by the constant bleep of text messages arriving, it may not shock you to know that 6.9 trillion SMS were sent in 2010. But beware, SMS traffic is expected to break the 8 trillion mark in 2011 which means quite a few extra bleeps to put up with!
4. But within 5 years, texting will be yesterday’s news
Given those figures, it might be hard to imagine a life beyond texting but by 2016, application-to-person (A2P) mobile messaging will overtake text messages and be worth more than US$70bn, making app development a key priority.
5. Many mobile users are mobile only
Source: On Device research
And finally, if none of the above has convinced you that mobile is taking over the world, take a look at this chart showing what % of mobile web users never, or only infrequently, use a desktop to access the web. Half of all African and Asian users are ‘mobile only’ and with the US also starting to show signs of abandoning the desktop, it seems that mobile really has become the future.
For more articles on mobile marketing and apps from the Kurtosys blog, turn to:
- Do you want a mobile website or a mobile app?
- 4 reasons you need a mobile app for that
- Mobile marketing: Revolutionising customer communication can increase satisfaction and the bottom line
And for help creating your own mobile platform contact Kurtosys.
About Hazel McHugh
Before becoming a freelance writer and digital marketeer, Hazel was Group Marketing Manager at Santander.