Statista, a market and consumer data provider, has released a report on worldwide smartphone adoption
The report stated that when the mobile industry is showing the latest developments in smartphone technology at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, foldable screens, sophisticated camera systems and 5G will steal most of the headlines.
And yet, with smartphone penetration approaching saturation levels in many developed countries, it’s easy to forget that billions of people don’t have a smartphone at all, let alone one that folds into a tablet or has five camera lenses, it added.
According to a report published by GSMA, the global industry group representing mobile operators and other industry players, worldwide adoption of smartphones accounted for only 60 per cent of all mobile connections in 2018, with many regions seeing adoption levels considerably lower than that.
The lowest level of smartphone adoption was observed in sub-Saharan Africa at 36 per cent, with North America at the other end of the spectrum at 80 per cent.
While having a smartphone may sound like a luxury rather than a necessity, it is worth noting that mobile internet access is a major factor in socio-economic development, especially in countries that lack the infrastructure to provide fixed internet to large parts of the population.
With this in mind, one can only hope that the GSMA’s forecast of smartphone adoption in 2025 turns out to be accurate. The industry group expects global smartphone penetration to hit 79 per cent by then with regions that are currently trailing behind seeing particularly strong growth.
