There Will Be More Mobile Devices Connected to the Internet Than Humans
One of the latest studies by technology company Cisco concludes that by the end of this year there will be more internet-connected devices than people in the world.
There Will Be More Mobile Devices
One of the latest studies by technology company Cisco concludes that by the end of this year there will be more internet-connected devices than people in the world.
This will become reality thanks, in part, to the significant growth of M2M (machine-to-machine) devices — systems that communicate directly with other equipment over the internet without human mediation.
The Cisco study reports that by the end of the year there will be more than 7 billion mobile devices connected to the internet. Growth will be especially strong in Asia and Africa.
Among the more curious data points regarding smartphone brands is that ownership of devices with the Android operating system will generally surpass that of iPhones during 2013.
The rapid growth in the number of these connected devices has placed the existing internet infrastructure under increasing strain, which could force service providers to expand the number of devices that can connect to the network through IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6).
The greatest growth in device ownership over the next five years will be in tablets, with an average annual increase of 46%. Smartphones will grow 20%, largely thanks to the adoption of low-cost internet-connected devices, such as those in the Nokia Asha line in the emerging markets of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Although the report concludes that by 2016 internet-connected devices worldwide are estimated to exceed 10 billion, this will be the same year in which smartphone sales begin to decline.
By 2016, the Cisco study predicts that tablets will account for more than 10% of global mobile traffic.
