New Flagship GSMA Intelligence Report Identifies Megatrends Shaping Mobile Ecosystem
London: The GSMA today launched its inaugural Global Mobile Trends' report, offering a vast wealth of data and insight on the state of the mobile ecosystem today and mapping out its future development. This flagship report, produced by GSMA Intelligence, the research arm of the GSMA, compiles data on mobile subscriber growth trends, mobile internet adoption, devices, and industry financials from both a global and regional perspective.
This first edition of the annual Global Mobile Trends report pulls together key data and analysis from GSMA Intelligence to present a comprehensive view of the megatrends shaping the global mobile ecosystem, said Hyunmi Yang, Chief Strategy Officer at the GSMA. In this year's report we demonstrate evidence of a major shift in mobile to Asia, particularly India, which has now overtaken China to become the industry's key growth market, and the transition to a smartphone-powered mobile-first' internet, which is delivering a new generation of internet users. The study also underscores the role of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things in ushering a new era of automation.
The 2016 edition of the Global Mobile Trends report is organised into five sections: Megatrends; Consumer Insights; Industry Performance and Mobile Ecosystem Dynamics; Future View and Regional View.
Key megatrends covered in the report include:
Asia Becomes the Growth Engine of the Mobile Ecosystem
More than one billion additional people worldwide will be connected to mobile networks by 20201. Approximately a third of these new users will come from India (337 million), underlining the country's increasing position as the world's most significant mobile growth market, overtaking China. China is forecast to add more than 200 million subscribers and there will also be major net subscriber contributions from Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. In total, these six Asian markets will account for approximately 60 per cent of the 1.1 billion new subscribers added globally by the end of the decade.
The Mobile Internet is the Internet
New mobile subscribers are more likely to be younger and are also more likely to be mobile-first' or mobile-only' internet users. Today 46 per cent of the global population is using mobile phones to access the internet, a figure forecast to increase to 60 per cent by 2020. As there will only be a minimal increase in the number of fixed internet households over this period, the increase in mobile phone ownership will therefore be the key factor driving global internet penetration. The increasing availability and affordability of 3G/4G devices and networks is also contributing to this phenomenon. Fast-growth markets where mobile internet penetration is currently low include India (32 per cent of the population) and Sub-Saharan Africa (25 per cent).
Smartphones are King - Even in Low-income Markets
The study indicates that smartphones may now be the most commonly owned consumer electronics device. In the UK, for example, smartphone penetration now stands at 71 per cent of mobile connections. This compares to 60-70 per cent across the rest of Europe, 75 per cent in the US, and above 80 per cent in some Asian markets such as South Korea and Singapore. However, smartphone growth has plateaued in most developed markets. By contrast, the smartphone adoption rate in India stands at only 25 per cent and unit volumes are growing by 30 per cent a year. The study predicts that several low-income countries (with per capita GDP below $10,000) will have smartphone adoption rates of 60-70 per cent by 2020, similar to most advanced regions and creating a new base of mobile internet users. This trend is being driven by continued decreases in device costs and rising incomes.
Shift in Revenue Towards Platforms and Content
Revenue from mobile services worldwide is forecast to grow by around 2 per cent annually through to 2020. Organic revenue growth is slowing in line with slowing subscriber growth, but is being offset by new revenue opportunities resulting from rising mobile internet adoption and the move to higher-speed networks. It is projected that annual revenue from voice, SMS and mobile data combined will surpass $1.5 trillion by 2020. However, as a proportion of overall mobile ecosystem revenue, the contribution from these services will fall from 41 per cent today to 38 per cent by 2025. By contrast, revenue from content services - services such as Netflix and Spotify - will increase from 3 per cent of ecosystem revenue today to 17 per cent by 2025.
Artificial Intelligence is Becoming the Super Enabler
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is emerging as the catalyst that will accelerate a number of emerging sectors, including connected cars and smart homes. Personal assistants (or bots) will be one of the early battlegrounds in AI led by the likes of Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa. These services are providing the voice interface' that can coordinate devices and data across a broad range of applications, creating voice-controlled hubs, with Amazon Echo and Google Home as examples. An ecosystem of AI-focused companies is emerging, comprising both established firms and start-ups. AI attracted $2.3 billion in venture capital last year and is also a major focus of current merger and acquisition activity.
The 2016 edition of the Global Mobile Trends report is based on proprietary GSMA Intelligence data and research, supported by selected data from third-party sources. The GSMA plans to publish this report on an annual basis, providing insights on the mobile ecosystem that will help the industry identify future areas of growth and innovation. The report is available as a free download via: www.gsma.com/globalmobiletrends
-ENDS-
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
New Flagship GSMA Intelligence Report Identifies Megatrends Shaping Mobile Ecosystem
