In 2010, there were some 763 million broadband subscribers world-wide, reports Instat.
“From 2007 through 2009, there was a continued growth rate of 25% in broadband subscribers worldwide,” says Vahid Dejwakh, Industry Analyst.
Additional research findings include:
- By year-end 2010, the US will have over 179 million broadband subscribers in the country.
- North America continues to be the largest market for cable modem services.
- Total worldwide DSL subscribers will reach 371 million at year-end 2010, fueled primarily by strong demand for DSL service in the Asia/Pacific region.
- Approximately 76% of the world’s FTTH subscribers reside in the Asia/Pacific region.
- Mobile wireless broadband subscribers continue to grow rapidly as mobile telephone service providers roll out 3G and 4G services.
Mobile broadband subscriptions are on track to surpass 1 billion in 2011 only months after reaching half a billion, according to Ericsson. There were 763 million broadband wireless subscribers in the world by the end of 2010, figures InStat.
With Verizon winding down FiOS, their fiber to the home program in the United States, most people will be stuck with one broadband pipe: cable. By year-end, Verizon has topped out at 4.1 million total FiOS Internet customers and 3.5 million total FiOS TV customers. As of year-end 2010, the FiOS network passed 15.6 million premises, or approximately 60 percent of Verizon’s domestic wireline footprint following the close of the Frontier transaction on July 1, 2010. In contrast, Comcast has 23 million video customers and 16.7 million broadband customers, along with 8.4 million Comcast Digital Voice customers. Susan Crawford is critical of the Comcast/NBC deal, believing it will only reduce competition.
According to In-Stat, unit shipments for smartphones will reach nearly 850 million by 2015.
Shipments of smartphones, tablets and other app-enabled devices will overtake PCs shipments in the next 18 months, says market research firm IDC. Shipments of personal computers will still continue to increase even as they are surpassed by other devices.
Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker previously predicted the shift to mobile (above). IDC predicts worldwide shipments of smartphones and media tablets will reach 284 million in 2010. In 2011, makers will ship 377 million of these devices, and in 2012, the number will reach 462 million shipments, exceeding PC shipments, says IDC.
In-Stat found that by 2015, more than two-thirds of all smartphones will be WCDMA (GSM-based), and LTE smartphones will make up only the small minority of annual handset shipments. This will be true even in 2015. Other smartphone competitors besides Apple, Android and Nokia include MeeGo, Bada, WebOS and Windows Mobile.
For PCs, IDC forecast 356 million PC shipments in 2010, and 402 million in 2011. In 2012, there will be 448 million PC shipments. IDC expects nearly 25 billion mobile apps to be downloaded in 2011, up from just over 10 billion in 2010. IDC forecasts worldwide IT spending will be US$1.6 trillion in 2011, an increase of 5.7% over 2010.
Facebook’s CTO Bret Taylor says, “Mobile is the primary focus for our platform this year.” Facebook has been building out a set of tools for mobile developers to mobilize their applications and has acquired a hyper-local mobile advertising service called Rel8tion.
Will Apple’s App Store and Google’s Marketplace become the World Bank – or will Comcast, China Mobile, Vodafone or T-Mobile mind the store? Place your bets.
