According to the company Strategy Analytics, globally there are over 1 billion active smartphones in Q3 2012, this being the first time in history when the number of active smart terminals exceeds this figure. In 1996, the idea of a smart phone was introduced, over the years it has evolved, and at the moment more than 1 billion devices of this kind are active globally. Exactly one year ago there were 708 million active smartphones worldwide, now the figure has reached 1.038 billion, most of them running iOS and Android OS.
The iPhone revolutionized smartphone design and it catalyzed industry growth. By the third quarter of 2011, we estimate there were 708 million smartphones in use worldwide. After a further year of soaring demand, the number of smartphones in use worldwide reached 1.038 billion units during the third quarter of 2012. Most of the world does not yet own a smartphone and there remains huge scope for future growth, particularly in emerging markets such as China, India and Africa. The first billion smartphones in use worldwide took 16 years to reach, but we forecast the next billion to be achieved in less than three years, by 2015.
Apple has sold over 250 million iPhones in recent years, in the case of Android the figure is probably a little higher and theoretically we could say that almost half of the smartphones active globally run on these two operating systems. The rest use Symbian, Windows Phone, Bada OS and other less known operating systems, but the important thing is that smartphones are becoming more and more important in the life of any person. Considering that in a single year over 300 million smartphones were activated globally, we can expect that by the end of 2013 the figure will reach 1.2 - 1.4 billion.
