50 jaw-dropping facts about the smartphone revolution

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GoCanvas Posts

7 min readJul 31, 2014

Our smartphones. We bring them with us everywhere. We check them constantly. Yet sometimes, we forget just how immensely powerful these devices truly are. In under a decade, the smartphone has changed the way we live, work and do business.

So take a deep breath, look at your phone and then ponder this mind blowing list of facts about smart phones.

A Massive Phenomenon

1. There are 1.75 Billion smartphone users in the world.

2. That is more than the population of the US and China — Combined

3. If you stacked all of them on top of each other they would reach 8,285 MILES into the air

4. That’s the height of 1500 Mount Eversts

5. But not far enough to reach to the moon. But you really only need one smartphone to go to the moon — an iPhone 5S is 15,625 times more powerful than the computer on board the Apollo 11.

6. Even compared to 1990, your phone can do some amazing things. Check out this Circuit City ad from 1990 — everything in it can now be done on your phone.

7. Music in 1990 CD Player — $160– and it only carried one album!

8. Camcorder — $799 in 1990 — and do you think it recorded in glorious 1080p?

9. Computing — Tandy 1000 for $1600 in 1990 and nowhere near as powerful as your smartphone.

10. There are more mobile device on Earth than people.

Key takeaways: At this point, it’s almost a cliché to talk about the importance of mobile. But even still, few people really grasp the true power of mobile technology. Smartphones have more processing capabilities than the supercomputers of yesterday and more functionality than any dozen gadgets plucked from a 90s electronics store. The sheer power that mobile technology affords to users is simply staggering.

Usage Statistics

11. It’s no wonder that we use them a lot. In fact, the average smartphone user checks their phone 110 times per day.

12. Which evens out to over 40,000 smartphone checks per year.

13. 91 percent of adults keep their smartphones within arm’s reach (as of 2007).

14. 44% of cell owners have slept with their phone next to their bed to make sure they don’t miss any important texts, calls or updates.

15. A solid 29% say their smartphone is “something they can’t imagine living without.”

16. Unfortunately, it’s hard to put down smartphones even when we probably should. 55% of people admit to using their smartphone while driving.

17. Nowhere is safe — 12% even report using their smartphone while showering.

18. And if you think you’re obsessed, that’s nothing on teens. 50% of teens with smartphones say that their internet use is “mostly mobile”. A glimpse into the future of the web?

19. 50% of all people on earth are covered by a 3G internet connection.

20. In 2013, mobile internet generated 18 times more data than the entire internet did in 2000(18 exabytes vs. 1 exabyte).

Key takeaways: It doesn’t come as any surprise that people check their smartphones a lot. What is surprising is the amount which mobile has saturated our world and the way that they have become attached to us. We drive with them. We sleep with them. Some of us even shower with them. In a few short years, smartphones have transformed the way we live. And their true impact is just beginning to be felt.

Mobile Business

21. Mobile commerce payments are expected to generate $114 billion this year.

22. Coupons on mobile are redeemed 10 times more often than print coupons

23. 88% of people with smartphones say their phones make them more spontaneous with buying

24. 30% of mobile shoppers abandon their transaction if the experience isn’t optimized for mobile

25. Tablet owners spend 50% more per transaction then smartphone owners

26. People aren’t just buying things on their phone, they’re buying them with them. Paypal reported that $27 billion of mobile payments was processed in 2013.

27. IOS users pay five times as much per user for app downloads

28. Everyone is going mobile — 60% of companies are making apps for their consumers and 56% for their employees.

29. Around the world, mobile commerce’s impact is even more profound — Kenya spent 31% of its GDP though mobile phones.

30. Mobile boosts economies — for every 10% of a countries population that goes mobile, their GDP is boosted 4.2%

Key takeaways. Smartphones are big business. People use them for each stage of the buying process, from research to execution. Smartphones add real value as they allow for business processes to be completed faster and easier.

I’ve seen first-hand the value that apps can have through my job at Canvas. Canvas helps companies collect and use information and data in real time using mobile apps. My personal favorite story is how we saved one company over a million dollars per year by streamlining their inspection process.

Apps

31. 75 billion apps have been downloaded from the Apple app store

32. What’s the most downloaded app of all time? You guessed it, Facebook.

33. Pandora, Instagram, Youtube and Skype round out the list of the top five most downloaded free apps.

34. ¾ of app downloads are for free apps.

35. The highest downloaded paid app — none other than Angry Birds.

36. Creating an iPhone app requires around 100,00 lines of code and $12,000 — $100,000

37. In total, there are 1,200,000 apps in the Apple app store.

38. It’s no wonder that the average smart phone user has 12 apps.

39. 80% of time on mobile is spent inside apps

40. 18-24 year olds spend an average of 37 hours and six minutes using apps every month.

Key takeaways: Apps are the lynchpin of the smartphone economy. Users spend the majority of their time in apps due to their increased customization and flexibility over mobile web browsers. If you want to seriously compete in today’s business world, you need to find a way to leverage the power of mobiles applications.

The Future of Mobile

41. By 2020, the total number of connected devices is expected to reach 10 billion.

42. By 2018, almost as much data will be generated monthly as was generated in all of 2013 (15 exabytes per month in 2018 vs. 18 exabytes total in 2013).

43. Over half of all mobile traffic was through video for the first time in 2013.

44. A 4G connected smartphone creates 14.5 times more data than other connections.

45. By 2015, there will be 85.9 billion mobile searches yearly.

46. Rectangular, stiff phones will soon be a thing of the past. From curved screens to phones you can roll up like a map, the future phones will look quite different.

47. The next thing your phone replaces might be your steering wheel — as self-driving cars become available they will likely be controlled by smartphones.

48. Or you might be strapping your phone to your face. Samsung has recently announced that they will use their Galaxy Smartphones as part of a virtual reality headset.

49. Mobile payments are expected to exceed $721 billion by2017

50. The total value of mobile business will exceed $3.2 trillion in 2017.

Key takeaway: Mobile is growing exponentially in just about every way. The coming years will see more than just the widespread adoption of smartphones across the globe. It will see them integrated, at a fundamental level, into just about every aspect of our lives.

Conclusion

Pretty crazy stuff, right? Smartphones and the mobile web have transformed the world. It’s tempting to think that we’ve seen most of what mobile has to offer. That couldn’t be further from the truth. As time goes by, mobile will increasingly become the dominant platform for information exchange across the globe. Don’t get left behind.

Want in on the revolution? I got to help create an eBook, “The Ultimate Guide to Collecting & Using Business Information”. It’s a great tool to help your business get started with mobile apps.

Sources

http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Smartphone-Users-Worldwide-Will-Total-175-Billion-2014/1010536

http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Apollo-11-The-computers-that-put-man-on-the-moon

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2449632/How-check-phone-The-average-person-does-110-times-DAY-6-seconds-evening.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-cichon/radio-shack-ad_b_4612973.html

http://www.statista.com/statistics/263794/number-of-downloads-from-the-apple-app-store/

http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/311100/the-10-most-popular-iphone-apps-of-all-time

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2242933/google-to-pay-apple-usd1bn-in-2014-for-default-internet-search

http://infographiclist.com/2013/11/01/a-visual-guide-to-how-consumers-use-mobile-phones-infographic/

http://www.wirelessweek.com/news/2013/10/itu-50-percent-all-people-earth-covered-3g

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2665715

http://www.jumio.com/2013/07/americans-cant-put-down-their-smartphones-even-during-sex/