The future of smartphone growth: By the numbers

The mobile computers in our pockets are getting more powerful by the day. And by 2016, there could be more souped-up smartphones and tablets than there are humans. That's according to new projections from tech titan Cisco. Here, a look at Cisco's vision of future smartphone growth, by the numbers:

7.3 billion

Estimated world population by 2016, according to the United Nations

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

10 billion

Estimated number of smartphones and tablets used worldwide by 2016, according to Cisco

1.4

Mobile gadgets for every person on Earth in 2016

490 million

Smartphones sold in 2011

50

Factor by which data traffic from smartphones will increase by 2016

62

Factor by which data traffic from tablets will increase by 2016

71

Percent of mobile traffic dedicated to watching videos on portable devices by 2016, a 25-fold increase from today

130

Exabytes of worldwide data traffic in 2016. That's the rough equivalent of 33 billion DVDs, 4.3 quadrillion mp3 files, or 813 quadrillion text messages.

Sources: CNN, eWeek, InformationWeek, Mashable, ZDNet