The mobile market isn’t saturated yet: Over half of the world is unconnected

The days of easy mobile growth are gone in the developed world, and those who want a smartphone have one — or 1.57 mobile connections according to recent research. That’s why the theme of third-quarter wireless industry financial results calls in the U.S. have focused on how carriers will grow in a saturated market. But when you look at the rest of the world closely, less than half of the addressable population has a mobile connection according to Wireless Intelligence, the analysis arm of the GSM Association. The GSMA estimates that only 45 percent of the population who could get a mobile subscription (this might be a phone or a tablet or a cellular modem) has one in 2012, but it predicts that number to rise to 53 percent by 2017. That means in the next five years, we’ll cross over the point where more people have mobile access than don’t. That’s a good thing.