2024 Milestone: How Phones Outnumber the World’s Population
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Table of Contents
Introduction
A mobile phone, as we all know, has been the major integral part of our dialy routine, ranging from receiving calls over a radio frequency link to performing various multimedia functions. The term "smartphone" comes in place when speaking of advanced computing capabilities. A smartphone combines the functionality of a mobile phone with a more advanced hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating system.
Smartphones grant users access to a wide range of applications and services which includes; web browsing, emails, social media, business application, mobile payments, GPS navigation etc.
As at 2024, records show that the total internet use over time experienced a significant growth.
According to Digital 2025 Global Overview Report - Published by DataReportal , statistics indicate that
A total of 5.56 billion people around the world were using the Internet as at the start of 2025, equivalent to 67.9% of the world's total population.
The total number of active social media user identities reached 5.24 Billion at the start of 2025
206 million new users identities joined social media between January 2024 and January 2025, equating to the growth of more than 560,000 new users everyday
55.8% of Internet users aged 16+ buy something online every week, amounting to a total of $4.12 trillion spent on online consumer goods purchase as at 2024
With these analyses, the phone technology industry has indeed witnessed a huge transformation and advancement. In this article, we will explore various remarkable perspectives on how smartphone adoption had improved over the past decades and the future of our mobile phone.
The Global Growth of Smartphone Technology
Significant changes have taken place in the networking of wireless communication overtime, with smartphone becoming widely used and a growing proportion of Internet access. With the constant rise of our smartphone, technology is promising a digitalized way to connect globally.
In 2017, there were over 700 active mobile phone manufacturing brands.As of 2023, records shows that there was a decline to almost 250 brands.
A few of these brands who have played various roles in the phone industry both in the past and currently are as follows;
Comparing Phone to the World Population
According to the United Nations, It took around 300,000 years of human history for the human population to reach one billion and an additional 218 years to reach eight billion
After the first Mobile phone call was made by Martins Cooper of Motorola in 1973, it was until 2002 that 10% of the world population was using Mobile phones. By 2005, that percentage has risen to 46%. By the end of 2009, there were a total of 6 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide. Between 2021-2022, the number of mobile phone connections surpassed 8 billion connections, accounting for multiple subscriptions per user
Factors Driving Mobile Phone Growth
- Declining cost of mobile phones
- Increased Internet and mobile expansion
- Multiple device ownership
- Growing demand for connectivity
- Rising disposable income and economy growth
- Government and business initiative
- Rapid technological advancement
- Second-hand and refurbished phone market
- Population growth in developing countries
- Integration of mobile phones in various industries
The Future of Phone Technology
As technology advances, smartphones are becoming smarter. Imagine how crazy it would sound in the 1990s if someone mentions the current advancement in mobile technology. At some point we begin to question ourselves,
what will smartphone look like in 10 years ? Will they be smarter than we humans?.
Considering the assistance smartphone have provided in our day-to-day activities, many predictions about the future smartphone have been made. Some of which includes;
SUPER COMPUTING: This is designed for performing high level computing task, such as; scientific simulation, weather forecasting and artificial intelligence research. The speed is measured in FLOPS. (Floating Point Operations Per Seconds).
However, smartphone have not yet reached the level of true supercomputer, but it is easier to note that they have become incredibly powerful in processing power. In fact, modern smartphones have the tendency of performing similar task as computer.
The future holds the possibility of smartphone replacing the computer chip for most part in the consumer market and attain super computer level performance through AI, cloud integration, quantum computing and advanced simulations.
6G CONNECTIVITY: 6G technology (IMT-2030), the future successor of current 5G technology (IMT-2020), is the Sixth Generation technology for wireless communication. The 6G technology is still in its development phase and is expected to be released by 2030.It is designed to support expanded and advanced usage for users compared to the 5G technology.
BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE (BCI) PHONES: This is a device that allows the direct communication between electrical activity and a peripheral device through the human thought. BCI technology is most suitable and beneficial to paralysed and disabled individual without the involvement in physical movement
Conclusion
The idea of more mobile phones than people highlights just how far the world have attain greater height in technology. These devices have become necessarily for communication, business, education, and even daily life.
The future isn’t just about having more phones; it’s about making them work for a better, more connected world.
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