Smartphone Ownership To Hit Nearly 70% In The Next Three Years

• According to ZenithOptimedia, smartphone ownership will reach 66.5 percent and tablet ownership 19.8 percent within the top 47 digital countries by the end of 2018.
• Smartphone ownership in the same 47 countries was only 49.5 percent in 2014.
• Smartphones and tablets will continue to rise in popularity as they are the first piece of technology a user turns to for information and entertainment.

Investors who demonstrated concerns relating to an oversaturation of the smartphone and tablet market may have found a certain degree of comfort following a study by ZenithOptimedia. Digital TV Europe cited the ZenithOptimedia report which stated that smartphone ownership will reach 66.5 percent and tablet ownership will reach 19.8 percent in the world's top 47 digital countries by the end of 2018. By comparison, the smartphone ownership rate was just 49.5 percent in 2014 in the same 47 countries. By the end of 2015, the ownership rate is expected to rise to 55.7 percent – implying the segment could still see growth over the coming years. "The rapid spread of mobile technology is transforming media consumption and marketing communication across the world," said Jonathan Barnard, ZenithOptimedia's head of forecasting. ""For more and more people, their smartphone or tablet is the first place they look for information or entertainment. Marketers need a mobile-first approach to communicate with these people effectively." The study also noted that the top 47 markets will boast a collective 1.9 billion internet users at the end of 2015, representing around 60 percent of the total world's internet user base. The top market for internet access is South Korea where access has been "universal" since 2011. Finally, the study concluded that the annual rate of growth in internet users within the 47 markets has fallen from 7.9 percent in 2011 to 2.5 percent in 2018, when there will be 2.0 billion users.