Smartphone subscriptions to reach 5.6 billion by 2019

Mobile subscriptions are expected to reach 9.3 billion, and 5.6 billion will be for smartphones by 2019, according to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report.

India saw the second highest number of new mobile subscriptions in Q3 2013, following China. There was a net addition of 10 million mobile subscriptions in India, taking the total number of Indian mobile subscriptions to 742 million.

"To support the smartphone user experience, WCDMA/HSPA networks are predicted to cover 90 percent of the world's population by 2019," as per the report.

"Moreover, almost two-thirds (65 percent) of the world's population will be covered by 4G/LTE networks. Currently, smartphones represent 25-30 percent of all mobile phone subscriptions, yet they account for the majority (55 percent) of mobile phones sold in Q3," the report revealed.

"The rapid pace of smartphone uptake has been phenomenal and is set to continue. It took more than five years to reach the first billion smartphone subscriptions, but it will take less than two to hit the 2 billion mark1. Between now and 2019, smartphone subscriptions will triple," said Douglas Gilstrap, senior vice president and head of strategy at Ericsson.

Interestingly, this trend will be driven by uptake in India and other emerging markets as lower-priced smartphone models become available.

In addition, smartphone traffic will grow by 10 times between 2013 and 2019, reaching 10 exabytes. Video is growing 55 percent annually, and will represent more than 50 percent of the mobile data traffic, while social networking and web services will account for around 10 percent each in 2019.