S&P 500
7,226.20
+0.01%
Dow Jones
49,494.60
-0.62%
Nasdaq 100
27,685.40
+0.66%
Russell 2000
2,804.78
-0.02%
FTSE 100
10,364.50
0.00%
Nikkei 225
59,260.50
-0.78%

Telecom & Wireless

A World Talking To Itself: Cellphones Hit 50% Worldwide Usage

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

ET will not have to phone home. He can talk to more than half of the world’s population. According to stats from the US, cellphone penetration will hit 3.3 billion people this year.

According to The Wall Street Journal "ownership rates in developing countries are rising fastest, with Brazil, Russia, India and China accounting for one billion subscribers last year."

That includes people who bought a phone, but can’t afford to pay for service.

The news is bound to be music to the ears of companies like Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Samsung, and even embattled Motorola (NYSE: MOT) at some point every one of those phones will need to be replaced or upgraded. Over 3.3 billion handset sales is as big as any market in the world.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

A 71-Year-Old's $850,000 Home Is Her Biggest Retirement Asset. Downsizing Could Add $2,250 a Month
Drew Wood |

A 71-Year-Old's $850,000 Home Is Her Biggest Retirement Asset. Downsizing Could Add $2,250 a Month
Why The Money Guy's 25% Savings Rule Actually Starts at 15%
Ian Cooper |

Why The Money Guy's 25% Savings Rule Actually Starts at 15%

Continue Reading

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Apple (AAPL) iPhones Secreted Into China Could Cost Company $1 Billion

Apple (NYSE: AAPL) iPhones, perhaps hundreds of thousands of them, are finding their way into China. There they are "unlocked"…
Paul Ausick |

Bloomberg: 8,500 Jobs to Be Cut at Nokia Siemens Networks

Last month when Nokia agreed to acquire the other half of its joint venture, Nokia Siemens Networks, from Siemens for…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Cheap Nokia Phones

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has launched a line of inexpensive touchscreen phones, perhaps to offset its failure in the high end…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Nokia (NOK) Numbers Bad For Motorola (MOT)

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) sold 115 million handsets in the first quarter, an increase of 27% over the same quarter a…
Paul Ausick |

Android to Top Mobile Operating Systems, But Windows Will Outpace iOS by 2016 (GOOG, AAPL, MSFT, NOK, RIMM)

Growth in mobile phone shipments this year is expected to be about 4%, the lowest growth rate since 2009. That’s…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Verizon (VZ) And Time Warner Cable (TWC) Have At It

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) went sniveling into US District Court to complain that Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) was running misleading…
Paul Ausick |

Smartphone Sales to Top 1 Billion in 2013

Courtesy ZTE Corp.The worldwide market for mobile phones is expected to grow by 7.3% in 2013, and global shipments of…
Paul Ausick |

Global Cell Phone Subscriptions Total 6 Billion

In a world with a total population of about 7 billion, cell phone subscriptions numbered about 6 billion at the…
6 Most Important Things in Business Today
Douglas A. McIntyre |

6 Most Important Things in Business Today

21st Century Fox and Walt Disney may be discussing a merger, Apple seeks new places to park money overseas, Toyota…

Top Gaining Stocks

Cboe Global Markets
CBOE • Vol: 1,568,143
New Pluto Global
PSKY • Vol: 12,285,993
Seagate Technology
STX • Vol: 7,378,346
Oracle
ORCL • Vol: 26,317,675
Datadog
DDOG • Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ • Vol: 4,367,433
Clorox
CLX • Vol: 13,260,523
Stryker
SYK • Vol: 4,519,455
Mohawk Industries
MHK • Vol: 1,859,865
Amgen
AMGN • Vol: 3,818,618