Mobile Devices Will Outnumber People by the End of the Year
— -- By the end of 2013, there will be more mobile devices on Earth than people, a new report suggests.
According to Cisco's Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, consumers' mobile appetite has grown a lot in the past year, and it shows no signs of slowing. In fact, Cisco predicts global mobile data traffic will increase 13-fold by 2017, with more than 10 billion mobile-connected devices by then. It also believes mobile network speeds will grow by seven times what it is now.
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In 2012, the number of mobile-connected tablets grew 2.5 times to 36 million, and each tablet generated 2.4 times more traffic than the average smartphone. Android also beat iPhone levels of data usage in the U.S. and Western Europe.
With connected devices on the rise, mobile data usage is skyrocketing too — mobile traffic worldwide grew 70% in 2012, nearly double what it was the year before. It's now 12 times what the global Internet was in 2000.
Consumers can't get enough of mobile video too. It grew 50% for the first time in 2012 and made up nearly 51% of mobile traffic. By 2017, Cisco believes two-thirds of global mobile data traffic will be video.
