Ericsson estimates smartphones accounted for around 65 percent of phones sold in Q1, up from 50 percent a year earlier. However, only 35 percent of the world's mobile users are on smartphones to date. Increasing penetration of smartphones will be the main driver for growth in mobile data traffic.
Ericsson expects mobile data traffic to grow at a 45 percent CAGR in 2013-2019 to 20 exabytes per month at the end of 2019, a 10-fold increase compared to end-2013. Smartphones are estimated to generate an average 2.5 GB each per month in 2019, a CAGR of 25 percent over the period, while tablets grow a faster 30 percent, to reach an average 6.3 GB per month.
Ericsson now estimates the world will reach 9.2 billion mobile subscriptions by 2019, of which over 80 percent for mobile broadband. LTE will count for around 30 percent of mobile subscriptions by the same date, when Ericsson expects over 65 percent of the world population will have access to 4G.
