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

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published

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.

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