Devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) are poised to overtake the number of standalone mobile phones by 2018, according to Ericsson's latest Mobility Report. A growing demand for IoT devices connected to smart meters and cars, as well as falling costs and innovative applications, will help IoT connected devices grow by a CAGR of 23 percent annually over the next five years. As a result, IoT connected devices will account for close to 16 billion of a total 28 billion connected devices by 2021, said Ericsson. Western Europe will lead the way in adding IoT connections, with the market projected to grow 400 percent by 2021, driven by regulatory requirements in the field of smart utility meters as well as the EU connected cars e-call directive to be implemented in 2018.
The report also revealed that smartphone subscriptions are expected to overtake those for basic phones in the third quarter for the first time, before increasing from 3.4 billion to 6.3 billion by 2021. Smartphones accounted for nearly 80 percent of all mobile phones sold in the first three months of the year, said Ericsson. The total number of mobile subscriptions hit 7.4 billion at the end of Q1, up 3 percent year on year, while the actual number of unique users surpassing 5 billion, led by 21 million net adds in India and 5 million in Myanmar.
LTE subscriptions also grew at a high rate in the first quarter, with 150 million new users driving the global total to nearly 1.2 billion. By the end of 2021, LTE technology is set to rise to a total of 4.3 billion subscriptions, said Ericsson, adding that LTE peak data speeds of 1 Gbps are set to be commercially available this year in markets such as Japan, US, South Korea and China.
Finally, the report said data traffic continued to grow at a phenomenal rate in Q1, with global mobile data traffic increasing by 60 percent year on year due to rising numbers of smartphone subscriptions and increasing data consumption per subscriber. By the end of 2021, around 90 percent of mobile data traffic will be from smartphones, said Ericsson.
Source: http://www.telecompaper.com/news/iot-devices-set-to-overtake-mobile-phones-by-2018-ericsson--1146399