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.