Long Live the Mobile!

OK, we all know that mobile phones are ubiquitous - “everybody has one these days.”

But it’s also good to remind ourselves from time to time what that means.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced yesterday that there are now 1.5 billion mobile subscribers in the world - 25% of the global population has one. For the record, fixed line is 1.185 billion, so mobile has overtaken that significant benchmark.

Much of this growth is fueled by the world’s three largest populated countries, China, India, and Russia. In fact, developing countries now account for 56% of the world’s subscribers.

How does this compare to Internet access - we also think of this as fairly ubiquitous. Actually, “only” 700 million have this.

But once these developing countries get better phones and can access the Internet through them, you can see where the growth opportunities lie.

The PC is dead. Long live the mobile!

Stats via Reuters.