Smartphone users to exceed 'fixed' internet users by end of 2013 predicts Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg at Mobile World Congress
Mobile phone company Ericsson’s CEO Hans Vestberg has predicted that smartphone shipments will this year exceed 50 per cent and that mobile internet users would grow beyond fixed internet users before the end of the year.
Speaking at the World Mobile Congress, Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg made the predictions while also making the announcement of a partnership with enterprise software company SAP which will see the firms jointly market and sell cloud based machine-to-machine solutions and services around the world.
"By the end of 2013, more than 50 per cent of phone shipments will be smartphones, driven by more affordable models," he predicted before adding that users appreciated the availability of apps and data across multiple devices.
"As we have the internet in our pockets, our virtual and real worlds are coming together. Online interaction enriches our living, working and entertainment and breaks down barriers of time and place. By the end of 2013, there will be more mobile internet users than fixed internet users," he continued while also predicting that LTE subscriptions exceed 100 million, as Ericsson begins to offer LTE Broadcast service to operators and media partners including Verizon Wireless and Telstra.
By the end of last year, Ericsson had supplied over 60 live commercial LTE networks across all continents and claimed that around half of smartphone traffic on LTE used Ericsson networks.
"Thanks to daily work that our customers entrust us with around the world, we continue to evolve our combined offerings. All our focus is on providing the right technology, services and solutions to our customers so that we together can shape the Networked Society,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ericsson has also announced that it is to provide the LTE-compatible core network and multi-standard radio base for half of O2's radio network across the UK in order to meet the growth in demand for connectivity and mobile broadband services.