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