Interesting Subscription Stats
Aditya October 1st
I was always curious to know some stats and today I stumbled on this great blog post “What do I mean, by ‘next four billion’?“. Following are some numbers that I found very interesting -
There are 480 million newspapers printed daily; 800 million automobiles registered on the planet; 1.1 billion personal computers including all desktops, laptops, notebooks and netbooks; 1.2 billion fixed landine phones; 1.4 billion internet users; 1.5 billion TV sets; 1.7 billion unique holders of a credit card of any type; and 2.1 billion unique holders of a banking account of any kind. But 4 billion mobile phone subscriptions.
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So, that is what was the first four billion. The rapid growth of what has become the most widely adopted technology on the planet. Now, what about the topic of the “next 4 billion”, that does sound a bit strange. The world total human population is only 6.7 billion people. Shouldn’t I be saying, “the next 2.7 billion”.
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So here is the big news. The next 4 Billion will not be like you and me. They will not be wealthy enough to own a PC and have a broadband connection and read blogs or do any Twittering on a PC. Over 95% of the next 4 billion will be in the Developing World, and while there will be of course an emerging middle class who may aspire to own a netbook, those tend to be wealthy enough to already have a subscription today. Those next four billion will be either those who do not have any connection today, at all, or else are second and third subscriptions to those who already have one today.
Read the entire post if you want to learn more about the mobile phone market potential. The numbers are really interesting!
