By 2019 total number of subscribers who use smart phones in the world will reach a figure of 5.6 billion. The growth of the smartphone market will be based mostly based on North America and Europe, but also Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Additional popularity of smart phones should be accounted to the trend of transition from 3G to 4G LTE mobile network in North America and Western Europe and the old Edge to 3G GSM networks in other parts of the world.

LTE mobile network is currently the most widespread in Japan, South Korea and North America, and Western Europe is also slowly expanding availability, although slower due to well-developed 3G networks. Ericsson expects that by 2019, two-thirds of the world's population will have access to LTE mobile network.

[Ed - this one goes in the anyone could have predicted this file. The idea that the smartphone market is going to grow is an obvious one. The question is, what form will these phone take in the future as the current platform and form factor is stagnating.]

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