Mobile Phones to outnumber people, UN report

A report by the UN suggests that mobile phones will outnumber people in the world.  The UN agency report has predicted that mobile subscriptions will surpass seven billion in early 2014, and will overtake the world population by the end of the year, BBC News reports.

 There are currently 6.8 billion mobile subscriptions and 7.1 billion people in the world.

 Africa has the least, with 63 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.

 The report also found that over one third of the world's population is now online. However, in countries like India, mobile growth is slowing.

Consumer watch website Nielsen suggests that more Africans have access to mobile phones than to clean drinking water.

In South Africa, the continent’s strongest economy, mobile phone use has gone from 17% of adults in 2000 to 76% in 2010. Today, more South Africans (29 million) use mobile phones than radio (28 million), TV (27 million) or personal computers (6 million). Only 5 million South Africans use landline phones.

 Meanwhile Microsoft also announced in February that it had teamed up with Chinese manufacturer Huawei to launch an affordable smartphone across Africa.

 "Microsoft and Huawei today introduced the Huawei 4Afrika phone, a full-functionality Windows Phone 8 preloaded with select applications designed for Africa, by Africans," said Microsoft's top executive for the Middle East and Africa, Ali Faramawy, on a corporate blog.

 While Africans have been enthusiastic adopters of mobile phones, the high cost of smartphones, which can run over $700, has kept penetration of the devices low.

 Microsoft estimates that smartphone penetration in Africa is about 10%, while sales of the devices accounted for 45.5% of total mobile phone sales globally last year according to the IDC research firm.

 Last week, struggling Finnish mobile giant Nokia unveiled on Thursday a $99-touchscreen smartphone as it battles to gain traction in India and other emerging markets to reverse falling sales.

 Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop released the Asha 501 in New Delhi, targeting users moving up from no-frills handsets, and said he believed the model would "reinvent the affordable smartphone" line.

 Elop told reporters that analysts estimate the lower-cost Internet-enabled smartphone category could be a $40bn market globally by 2015.

 Analysts suggest the once-dominant phonemaker's future may lie in selling budget smartphones in fast-growing emerging markets such as India, Africa and parts of Latin America where customer penetration is still relatively low.

"Global players are looking at price points below $100 where there are serious volumes to be had," independent New Delhi telecom consultant Kunal Bajaj said.