Which country has the largest number of active mobile phones per person? You might be surprised.
According to employee advocate platform PostBeyond, China, the United Arab Emirates, the Seychelles, Montenegro, and Thailand have the greatest number of mobile phones per person. The United States, meanwhile, is all the way down the list at number 54. The numbers are based on World Bank data.
In Macao SAR, China, PostBeyond notes that there are a massive 345 mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people — or 3.45 phones per person. Meanwhile, the United States has “just” 1.29 phones per person.
Anecdotally, these numbers would seem to make sense given the number of people who have both a work phone and a personal handset. A report from 2008 shows that, even before the age of the smartphone, many users already had a couple of devices.
PostBeyond told Cult of Mac that they were unable to provide a breakdown of the different types of smartphones used. However, reports such as this help to highlight just how the massive demand for phones helped transform Apple’s fortunes. While Apple wasn’t exactly doing badly before the iPhone, without it there would never have been the current $1 trillion valuation.
It also highlights why it’s so difficult for Apple to find another single device able to replicate the iPhone’s sales. Apple has sold an estimated 2.2 billion iPhones to date.
Photo: PostBeyond
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
