The future of smartphone growth: By the numbers

In a few short years, Earth will likely be home to more smartphones and tablets than human beings

By 2016, traffic from smartphones will increase by a factor of 50, according to new projections.
(Image credit: Noel Hendrickson/Corbis)

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

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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