Household Possession of Mobile Phones to Hit 90% in 2015

Euromonitor, world’s leading provider for global business intelligence and strategic market analysis, has said that next year will mark a technological milestone as the number of households possessing a mobile telephone will surpass 90% for the first time based on 86 countries which account for 87.3% of global households.

This is important for several reasons:

Mobile telephones are growing in ubiquity and are now considered an essential household item, even in less affluent countries and regions. In Africa, for example, mobile phones have leapfrogged personal computers enabling consumers in remote areas to get connected;

This trend is also representative of a growing global middle class; communications is often amongst the first categories where discretionary spending occurs, once consumers enter the realms of spending beyond the essential items of food and housing;

As more consumers seek to upgrade their handsets to smartphones or mobile phones enabling web access, marketers should consider mobile and Internet marketing as an area for growth in order to reach new consumer prospects directly.

There remain discrepancies in mobile phone penetration rates across the world with higher income countries tending to have a greater proportion of mobile phone ownership.

However, big emerging markets such as India, Nigeria and Mexico with relatively low mobile phone penetration offer growth potential, while saturated markets in developed economies can be targeted with more sophisticated devices as consumers seek products that can help them stay digitally active while on the move and where one device will satisfy all needs.

The boundaries between personal and work technologies will continue to blur as more workers can work from anywhere at any time.