In the digitized world, it is interesting to study the trends of smartphone use across the globe. In terms of the number of internet users, India, China and the US rank ahead of other nations.
As of July 2019, more than 4.33 billion people get access to internet through their mobile devices across the world. In the past, computer used to be the device, through which people used to get access to internet on most occasions. However, recent trends reveal that more than 50% of internet users get access to cyberspace through their mobile devices.
Countries with the highest internet penetration
Presently, mobile devices connect billions of people worldwide. Besides, in developing nations like India, people use smartphones to get access to the internet. The online penetration across the globe is 57%. However, in advanced areas like Northern Europe and North America, internet penetration is more than 95%.
Some of the countries with the highest internet penetration include Norway, Qatar, the UAE, Iceland, Aruba, Bermuda and Andorra. In these countries, more than 99% of people have access to the internet. Interestingly, most of these people get access to internet through smartphones.
However, North Korea has a surprisingly lesser degree of online usage penetration, with 0.08% of its people using the internet through smartphones. With more than 2 billion internet users, Asia happens to be the region with the largest number of smartphone users. Europe occupies the second position presently, with 705 million people.
How many people across the world own smartphones?
Across the world, more than 3 billion people use smartphones. In the next few years, this figure is likely to increase further. In the last five years, around 1.4 billion smartphones across the world have been sold annually. The growth potential of the smartphone market is still high. The reason is, the penetration rate of smartphones is presently lower than 70% in several countries with a high population. This, in particular, includes India and China. With increasing sales, the revenue generated from the global smartphone market has increased over the last few years. At the same time, the average selling price of phones across the world has also witnessed a rise.
Who are the leading smartphone manufacturers?
The leading global smartphone manufacturers include Apple, Samsung and Huawei. These three companies account for around half the smartphone shipments across the world. In 2018, the three companies shipped more than 200 million handsets across the world.
Reports suggest that in the first half of 2019, mobile devices, apart from tablets, generated 48.71% of the global website traffic. Since 2017, it has revolved around the 50% mark. Some places in the world have witnessed greater adoption of mobile internet, as compared to the others. Presently, several digital markets work on mobile-first principles. This has prompted people across the globe to buy sophisticated handsets. Mobile broadband penetration across the world has also increased significantly over the last decade.
In the coming years, smartphone usage across the world, particularly the ones with high population will increase. This will further foster the growth of the global smartphone market, with new brands joining the competition.