Smartphone subscriptions in 2020 has more doubled since 2015 to 6.1 billion units globally, growing at a CAGR of 10.54% in the 5-year period from 2016-2020,according to data presented by Buyshares.co.za.

Smartphones became mainstream soon after the iPhone’s launch and are now ubiquitous in today’s society.  Swedish telecommunications company, Ericsson, estimates there to be 6.1 billion smartphone subscriptions in the world in 2020, over 101% more than 2015’s smartphone subscriptions. In the 5-year period from 2016-2020, smartphone subscriptions grew at a CAGR of 10.54%.

In the year that the first iPhone was released, it is estimated that 122 million units of smartphones were sold to end-users. In 2018 that figure ballooned to a record 1.56 billion smartphones sold. 2019 posted similar numbers to 2018 but experienced a 10.5% year-on-year (YoY) decrease in the pandemic ravaged year of 2020. The number of smartphones sold to end-users is projected to bounce back and increase by 11.4% YoY in 2021.

China has an estimated 912 million smartphone users in 2020, the most in the world. China’s smartphone penetration rate in 2020 stood at 63.4% which is the 8th highest in the world. Of the top 20 countries with the most smartphone users, the US had the highest penetration rate of 81.6%. Fifteen other countries from the top 20 list, posted smartphone penetration rates of above 50%.

As of 2020, Newszoo estimates that there are 3.6 billion smartphone users worldwide. The same estimates project smartphone users to rise by almost 20% by 2023 to 4.3 billion. The smartphone penetration rate globally in 2020, stood at 46.45% compared to just 33.5% in 2016. – TradeArabia News Service