Mobile phones will outnumber people by the end of this year

Sponsored links, if any, appear in green.

The number of mobile phones in the world is expected to eclipse the human population by the end of this year according to Cisco. The company says that there were 7 billion mobile devices in use across the globe in 2011, and that figure is supposed to grow significantly this year.

The 7 billion figure equated to 0.9 phones per capita in 2011. By the end of 2012, Cisco expects there to be 1.4 phones in use per person on earth. The company points to the extensive growth of mobile phone use in the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific region as the main reason for the increase in number of devices in use.

Cisco also predicts that there will be more than 10 billion connected devices in use by 2016 and that wireless internet usage will be 18 times greater than today. [via News.com.au]