People everywhere are consuming more and more wireless bandwidth to manage a wider variety of tasks. Evidence shows that the mobile phone is becoming indispensable to us: more people are paying for apps, and they're more willing to trade privacy for benefits.
Worldwide Mobile Data Usage Forecast, by Region
Chart 1: Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region will account for nearly 60 percent of worldwide mobile data traffic by 2014. But emerging markets such as Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa, having started with relatively small numbers, are growing the fastest.
Source: Cisco
Mobile-Phone Accounts Approach Level of World Population
Chart 2: Mobile service is among the fastest-spreading technologies in history. The number of mobile-phone accounts worldwide has doubled, to about 5.5 billion, over the past five years, while world population has reached nearly 6.7 billion.
Note: These data track accounts, not individuals, and some people have two or more accounts.
Source: International Telecommunication Union
Changes in Mobile Internet Activities, 2006-2011
Percentage of respondents reporting or projecting mobile activities
Chart 3: E-mail is the most common Internet application that people report using on their mobile devices in a typical week. With the rise of smart phones, e-mail seems to be displacing text messaging to some extent. Social networking, audio streaming, music, and games are seeing strong growth.
Source: Bridge Ratings/eMarketer
A ubiquitous technology redefines the way we engage with people, information, and companies.
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