World smartphone usage passes billion-unit markOctober 17, 2012 - 13:00 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The world smartphone usage total has passed the billion-unit point, the first time it has done so. It has taken 20 years, from the first appearance of the device in November 1992 to today, The Register reports. Strategy Analytics, a market watcher, said it reckons one in seven members of the world’s population has owned a smartphone during Q3 2012, with the usage figure hitting 1.038 billion during that three-month period. The first smartphone was IBM’s Simon, a device that premiered in November 1992 at the now defunct Comdex Fall show but which didn’t ship until 1994. Two years later, Nokia released the Nokia 9000 Communicator, a handset closer than the Simon to the devices we call smartphones today. “Nokia remained a dominant force in smartphones for over a decade until the arrival of Apple’s iconic iPhone in 2007. The iPhone revolutionized smartphone design and it catalyzed industry growth,” added SA’s Neil Mawston. “By the third quarter of 2011, we estimate there were 708 million smartphones in use worldwide.” One year on, the figure has risen to over one billion. With six billion folk out there without a smartphone, there’s plenty more to sell in the coming years. Mawston forecast the two billion mark will be reached in 2015, just three years from now. Top stories Yerevan will host the 2024 edition of the World Congress On Information Technology (WCIT). Rustam Badasyan said due to the lack of such regulation, the state budget is deprived of VAT revenues. Krisp’s smart noise suppression tech silences ambient sounds and isolates your voice for calls. Gurgen Khachatryan claimed that the "illegalities have been taking place in 2020." Partner news Most popular in the section | Russia provides info about arrested Armenian ex-MP Russian law enforcement agencies have provided information about the arrest of Tigran Urikhanyan. Lemkin Institue slams Pashinyan's “cryptic engagement with Genocide denial” The Lemkin Institute is alarmed over Pashinyan’s statements “questioning Armenia's legal basis to pursue justice against Turkey”. 41 detained as antigovernment protests continue in Yerevan 41 people were detained in Yerevan as people demanding Pashinian’s resignation stage campaigns of civil disobedience. Armenia votes for UN resolution granting Palestine new rights The U.N. General Assembly voted by a wide margin on May 10 to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine. |