Cisco predicts a huge increase in mobile video use by 2021 which they attribute to the rapidly growing number of smartphone users around the globe, a number that Cisco mentions is creeping up on the amount of people in the world that are using bank accounts and landline phones. According to the report, in 2021 there are projected to be around 5.4 billion people globally that will be using bank accounts, and the number of people using landlines is projected to be around 2.9 billion. Mobile phones on the other hand are expected to reach a number of 5.5 billion people which will play a heavy role in the growth of mobile video.
In addition to mobile video growth, more people are expected to start interacting with and adopting VR and AR technology. last year there were around 18 million people recorded as having picked up a VR headset. That number is expected to multiply and increase to 100 million by 2021 which showcases a big adoption rate of the technology and that more users are likely to become comfortable with it as time goes on. Not only that, but as adoption of VR headsets grows, so to will the consumption of VR content with the number of global VR traffic slated for a rise from 13.3 petabytes a month to over 140 petabytes a month by 2021.
This is great for VR as companies continue to look for ways to break into the market and increase interest in the platform, but the largest amount of growth by far is still projected to be live mobile video. According to Cisco the growth for live mobile video will increase 39-fold by 2021, and because of that large increase mobile video in general, both live and recorded, will make up a total of 78 percent of all mobile data traffic in the next five years. That’s compared to 60 percent of all mobile data traffic as of 2016. Cisco also highlights the amount of mobile connected devices for each region around the globe, and they’ve predicted the amount of devices per capita for each region. North America is listed as the highest per capita for mobile connected device use by 2021 with the number sitting at 2.9. The lowest is listed as the Asia Pacific at 1.4 devices per capita, while the total of mobile connected devices globally is expected to hit around 12 billion.