Technology is changing our interactions and changing us in the process.
Nearly 90 percent of U.S. households now have a cell phone – a huge number and clear paradigm shift that is only eclipsed only by the number of global mobile phone service subscriptions eclipsing 5 billion this month. Of that number, there are now more than 500 million active 3G data subscriptions.
Curiously with that growth, the voice minutes used by consumers has stagnated, even though more households each year – 2 million a day globally – are disconnecting their landlines in favor of cellphones.
Instead of talking on their cellphones, people using the data applications found on iPhone, BlackBerry, Samsung, Microsoft, Android and other smart-phones to browse the Internet, listen to music, watch television, play games, send e-mail and text messages.
The number of text messages sent per user increased by nearly 50 percent nationwide last year, according to the CTIA, the wireless industry association. And for the first time in our history, the amount of data in text, e-mail messages, streaming video, music and other services on mobile devices surpassed the amount of voice data used in cell phone calls.
By example, the multi-platform LOCiMOBILE personal location people finding apps; GPS Tracking and Tracking have surpassed 500,000 users in more than 84 countries in just a few months. The velocity of the apps distribution made possible by; the introduction of third party applications and their adoption by consumers which has driven device sales, application downloads, wireless subscriptions and an explosive investment in wireless technologies.
10 years ago, only 720 million people in the world had mobile phone service. Today, there are more subscribers than that in China alone. The number of mobile broadband subscriptions is anticipated to reach 3.4 billion by 2015, with a total number of connected mobile devices around the world to climb to 50 billion by 2020.
