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According to ABI Research’s forecasts, the GSM subscriber growth, on an absolute basis, is slowly grinding to a halt, and is expected to flatline by mid-2011.
The number of high-speed connection users, on the other hand, keeps growing. At the end of 2009, there were 181 million HSxPA subscriptions, with overall mobile broadband subscriptions growing to 271 million, representing a YoY growth rate of 43%.
In comparison, the total number of mobile subscriptions surpassed 4.35 billion by the end of 2009, with a YoY growth of 10.4% and global cellular penetration of 66%.
Some industrialized countries pushed through the 100% penetration barrier by the end of the 1990s, and analyst Bhavya Khanna believes that some markets will even pass through 200% mark within the next five to ten years. On a global scale, ABI forecasts that cellular penetration will include 80% of the world’s population by early 2014.
In terms of penetration by region, the Asia-Pacific accounts for 45% of the global cellular market compared to just 29% ten years ago. The next-largest market is Western Europe (13%) followed by North America (7.2%). However, in Asia Pacific, cellular penetration has only reached 52.5% compared to 140% in Western Europe and 93% in North America…
As usual, you can get addition information from ABI Research’s website.
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
