Mobile Phones To Cross 5 Billion in 2010

As we all know, the economic recession came and hit the whole world, and now things seem to be easing off, ever slowly though. But one industry seems to have been completely unaffected by this phenomenon. The mobile phone industry. Take it as the innovative marketing technique of the industry players, or simply the need of every person to possess a mobile to stay in touch, besides other related reasons. The year end saw worldwide mobile phone subscriptions cross the 4.5 billion mark. And simple predictions forecast topping of the 5 billion mark in the year 2010.

Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said, "Even during an economic crisis, we have seen no drop in the demand for communications services. I am confident that we will continue to see a rapid uptake in mobile cellular services in particular in 2010, with many more people using their phones to access the Internet. Even the simplest, low-end mobile phone can do so much to improve health care in the developing world. Good examples include sending reminder messages to patients' phones when they have a medical appointment or need a pre-natal check-up. Or using SMS messages to deliver instructions on when and how to take complex medication such as antiretrovirals or vaccines. It's such a simple thing to do, and yet it saves millions of dollars and can help improve and even save the lives of millions of people."

A noticeable trend over the last few years is that more and more people have been using their mobiles to access the Internet. By the year 2015, people accessing the Internet while on the move through laptops and smartphones will exceed those of desktop users. So with a world population of around 6.8 billion, around ¾ are cell phone subscribers worldwide.