Global smartphone user population to reach 1.75 bn in 2014: report

The population of global smartphone users is set to touch 1.75 billion in 2014, says a new report by internet market research firm, eMarketer.

The report comes against the backdrop of a slow down in mobile adoption.

The success of home-grown brands like Micromax, Lava and Xolo in India could be traced to manufacturers' devices being affordable as also the interest in mobile web usage to the data packages on offer by network operators.

According to eMarketer 48.9 per cent of users would access the web every month in 2014.

Developing regions in Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East would account for a huge percentage of the increase in global smartphone users seeing that many were switching from feature phones to smart handsets.

The 2013 to 2017 period would be expected to see a rise of 61.1 per cent to 69.4 per cent in mobile penetration.

The rise to 1.75 billion users might take place this year itself and towards the end of the forecast time-frame, smartphone penetration among mobile phone users worldwide would be almost 50 per cent.

According to eMarketer, global mobile phone users would increase to 4.55 billion this year, while the smartphone users base is expected to grow to 1.75 billion, driven by developing countries markets, that include Asia-Pacific and Africa in the Worldwide Mobile Phone Users: H1 2014 Forecast and Comparative Estimates report.

eMartketer said, "The global smartphone audience surpassed the 1-billion mark in 2012 and will total 1.75 billion in 2014. eMarketer expects smartphone adoption to continue on a fast-paced trajectory through 2017.

"More than 2.23 billion people worldwide, 48.9 per cent of mobile phone users, will go online via mobile at least monthly in 2014 and over half of the mobile audience will use the mobile Internet next year," eMarketer said.

According to the report, in 2014, mobile devices would become the primary computing devices for many end users. The firm added, mobile phone users were fast switching over to smartphones as devices and 3G and 4G networks became more affordable.

TRAI said in a recent report that India would surpass US to become the second biggest internet population soon. India's internet subscriber base had grown nearly 20 per cent in June 2013 quarter over the previous quarter and if India maintained the same growth rate it would soon overtake the US which had more than 260 million internet users, by June 2014.