We do an annual look into the size of the mobile industry here at the Communities Dominate blog. So its time to review the growth of mobile and report on the technology that has 4 Billion subscribers. Recognizing that the world has about 6.6 Billion people, it means there is a mobile phones subscription now for 60% of the whole planet (source TomiAhonen Consulting 2009).

START WITH SCALE

Lets start with comparisons. Newspapers? the total circulation of all daily newspapers worldwide is about 480 milllion. Cars? There are about 800 million cars on the planet. Cable and satellite TV subscriptions? About 850 million. Personal computers including desktops, laptops and netbooks, about 1 billion. Fixed landline telephone connections, about 1.2 billion. eMail users about 1.3 billion. Internet users about 1.4 billion. Television sets about 1.5 billion. And credit cards? About 1.7 billion people carry at least one credit card in their wallet.

But there are 4 billion mobile phone subscriptions now in January 2009. More than twice the number of credit card owners, 2.5 time