• 1.43 million smartphones to be sold in 2015
  The global smartphone market will grow in single digits for the first time ever this year, according to IDC from 9.8 per cent in 2015 to post a total of 1.43 billion units sold.

• Two billion people will use the mobile internet next year
  44 per cent of the world’s population will have access to the Internet in 2016 – and more than two billion will be using mobile devices to connect, says a new IDC infographic.

• Apple’s sales in India pass $1bn in the financial year
  Apple posted a 44 per cent increase in sales in India in FY2015, and crossed the $1-billion sales mark for the first time in the region.

• Singapore leads the world in smartphones – with 89 per cent penetration ZenithOptimedia’s “New Media Forecasts” study says 89.0 per cent of Singaporeans had a smartphone in 2014, and that this will leap to 97.0 per cent by 2018.

• China Mobile is targeting 500 million 4G users by end of next year
  The world’s biggest MNO wants the world’s biggest 3G user base. China Mobile, with over 800 million subscribers, has declared a target of 500 million on 4G by 2016.

• Microsoft/Nokia sell 97.02 per cent of Windows Phone models
  Third party OEMs have all but vanished from the Windows Phone OS, according to research by AdDuplex. It says Microsoft/Nokia dominate the platform, with a combined market share of 97.02 percent.

• India is on target for half a billion mobile subscribers this year
  A new report by GSMA ‘India 2015’ says India has 453 million unique mobile subscribers at the end of 2014 – and will pass 500 million by the end of this year.

Apps and services

• Mobile mapping market worth more than $10bn in 2015
  Enthusiasm among individuals and enterprises will push the market for mobile location-based services to $26 billion by 2020, according to a new report from MarketsandMarkets.

• 73 per cent of enterprise app deployments are iOS
  According to an analysis of two million mobile app installations by app management company Apperian, 73 per cent of enterprise mobile app deployments run on iOS, while 26.5 per cent are Android-based and just 0.3 per cent are made for Windows.

• App-based TV to dominate viewing by 2018
  More than 75 per cent of TV-style content will be watched through app-based services in mature markets inside three years, says Gartner..

• BYOD pushing mobile security spending to $34.8 billion by 2020
  A new study by Research and Markets prodicts the mobile BYOD security market will reach $34.8 billion by 2020, based on CAGR of 40.8 per cent. It was worth $3.4 billion in 2013.

Wearables and smartwatches

• Half of all mature market users will pay with a phone or wearable in 2018
  Mobile payments are gaining such acceptance among consumers in North America, Japan and Western Europe that Gartner estimated half of consumers in these regions will use them inside three years.

• 740 million wearables will be in use in 2016
  The market for wearables is set for a major surge, with 740 million units in use by the end of next year, and 1.1 billion units by 2019. The findings appear in a new research from Gartner.

• TAG Heuer says retail orders for its smartwatch total 100,000
  Swiss watch maker TAG Heuer has nearly doubled weekly production of its smart watch from 1,200 to 2,000 due to strong demand.

• Wearables will drive 100 million mobile banking sessions by 2020
  The number of banking sessions accessed from wearable devices will increase 10x between 2015 and 2020, says a new report from Juniper Research.

• Top use of an Apple Watch? Telling the time
  The Mobile Life Research Centre at the University of Stockholm tracked 1,009 incidents of watch use, and found half were to simply check the watch face for the current time.