A prediction of the state of mobile in 2017
Cisco has predicted that, by 2017, smartphones and tablets will consume three times more data than the entire desktop internet.
Here are some forecasts from Cisco to give you an idea of what this means for mobile data growth during the next 5 years.
By 2017, global mobile traffic will reach an annual run rate of 134 exabytes per year. This is equivalent to 30 trillion Instagram or 3 trillion YouTube video clips.
Global mobile users are growing 3.5 times faster than the global population. 4.3 billion in 2012 to 5.2 billion by 2017.
An average mobile users traffic per month will increase dramatically across all formats from 2012 to 2017.
- Videos viewed per month will increase from 1 hour to 10 hours
- Audio usage will increase from two hours to 15 hours
- Video calls will increase from an average of one to five
- App downloads will jump from one a month to 15 a month
Global mobile devices and connections will grow from 7 billion to 10.3 billion by 2017. With Asia Pacific alone growing from 3,470 million in 2012 to 5240 million by 2017.
In the next five years mobile traffic will grow worldwide by 13 times what it is now with the Asia Pacific seeing a 17 fold growth.
By 2017 Asia Pacific will use 47.1% of all mobile data traffic. Followed by North America with 18.7% and Western Europe 12.4%. The Middle East and Africa will see the biggest growth rate between 2012 and 2017 with a 77% increase.
Mobile data traffic generated by smartphones will be 8.5 times the total amount of global mobile traffic generated by all devices in 2012, tablets will increase by 1.5 times.
Android's popularity means that Android will still beat iPhone/iPad for mobile data consumption by 2017 with video still being what will eat up most people’s data plans and 3G being the most popular connection.
