| On 10.05.09, In Uncategorized, by tilak |
Mobile-phone and Internet both are basic need of people. Perhaps the uses and need of both are equal. But it is quite surprising to know that Mobile-phone users are nearly triple the Internet users. The fact was revealed by a research done by World Bank and others. The research concluded that 1.5bn used Internet while 4bn used Mobile-phone in the year 2008. See the figure below.
Economist.com reported,
An extra ten mobile phones per 100 people in a typical developing country boosts growth in GDP per person by 0.8 percentage points, according to a recent study. Mobile-phone subscriptions in poorer countries accounted for just a quarter of the global stock in 2000, but had risen to three-quarters of the 4 billion total by the start of this year.
Another fact is that out of the 4bn Mobile-phone users, 3bn users are from developing countries. And the user at developing countris are increasing significantly than stable users of developed countries. In between the year 2000 to 2008, mobile phone users of developed countires lie within 1bn but mobile phone users of developing countires increases from below 1bn to 3bn.
It clearly shows that there are still great uptapped mobile phone market in developing countires.
The research also forecasts that the Internet users will be more than 2bn in the year 2012.
Till the date, fixed-broadband subscribers dominates the Internet market against Mobile-broadband subscribes. But the trend will be reversed from the year 2011, the research shows. And the Mobile broadband subscribers will be increased substantially after the 2011.
It shows that people prefer to be connected wherever they will be.
The next challenge is to expand the use of mobile technology to access the internet. The mobile phone may still provide the cheapest way to access the internet in the developing world.
Economist.com concluded.
7 Responses
Its not surprising I guess.. Its easy to buy a cellphone than to have internet connection… On top of it, a person can afford two or three mobile connections but internet connections??? certainly not…
[...] dedicati a calcio, tennis, poker”. Era invece più interessante notare – ad esempio – che gli utenti che usano Internet sono 1,5 miliardi mentre quelli che usano il cellulare ben 4 miliardi, circa il triplo. E non solo: la maggior parte di quelli che usano i mobile phone, circa 3 miliardi [...]
may be you are right. but it is quite surprising that mobile phone users are 2.5bn greater than internet users.
I don’t find any surprise in this, well there could be around 3 – 4 mobile connection in a family of say 4, however when it comes to internet, there would be only 1 or max 2 per house. not individual..Mobile are counted on the basis of individual and not house. whereas Internet connections are basis House and not individual.
You are absolutely right. This could be a valid reason for the vast difference. And the increment of mobile phone users, specially in developing countries, are awesome.
Maybe the real reason is that mobile can be as low as $20 but a typical smartphone and desktop fetches around $200-300. Moreover telecom network is not much developed for internet in developing countries like India but companies like Reliance have brought mobiles to vegetable vendors too. So it’s not counting the heads that matters, rather counting the brains. This is too broad and nothing specific can be said about it.
We must thank and give credit to Reliance and such companies for the magnificent development of mobile phone users in developing countries.
Thank you Krishna for your valuable input.