The Mobile Revolution: Still The Biggest Tech Trend Ever

 | Mar 12, 2013 04:24AM ET

Almost two years ago to the day, I boldly proclaimed: “The exploding use of mobile devices promises to be the fastest-growing – and possibly biggest – technological trend ever.”

Since that time, reality has lived up to all my hype. (Phew!)

Even better, WSD Insider subscribers have parlayed the historic growth into multiple double- and triple-digit profit opportunities. And they continue to do so with companies like InterDigital (IDCC).

The best part? The “Mobile Revolution,” as I like to call it, isn’t even close to petering out.

To the contrary, the growth is actually accelerating.

Of course, I don’t expect you to take my word for it. So I’m sharing five irrefutable statistics to prove it…

Five Undeniable Signs of a Hypergrowth Market
Longtime subscribers know that I like to anchor my investments to the market’s fastest, most sustainable growth trends. Ones that promise to continue, no matter what happens in the world or economy.

I mean, why wouldn’t we want to stack the odds so heavily in our favor?

Well, there’s no better example of such a “forever growth trend” than the mobile industry. And here are the five statistics to prove it, courtesy of Cisco’s (CSCO) latest market research:

~ Mobile Stat #1: A Market of 10 Billion (or More)
By 2017, mobile device subscriptions are expected to top 10 billion. That works out to 1.4 devices for every person expected to be on Earth at that time (7.6 billion). Previous estimates by Morgan Stanley (MS) had us hitting the 10-billion mark in 2020. So we’re now three years ahead of schedule. I’d say that growth is accelerating, wouldn’t you?

~ Mobile Stat #2: Data Overload (Part 1)
IBM (IBM) points out a fascinating fact that 90% of the digital data in the world has been created in just the last two years. However, we’re still nowhere close to slowing down. Mobile data traffic alone ballooned 70% in 2012. And Cisco expects it to increase another 13-fold by 2017.

~ Mobile Stat #3: Data Overload (Part 2)
Smartphones (those electronic leashes we all carry with us approximately 97% of the time – even to the bathroom) only make up about 18% of all handsets. Yet they account for roughly 92% of global handset traffic. Put another way, the average smartphone generated 50 times more mobile data traffic (342 MB per month) than the typical basic cellphone (6.8 MB per month). And that shocking discrepancy is only about to get bigger. By 2017, the average smartphone is expected to generate 2.7 GB of traffic per month, which works out to an eight-fold increase over the current average.

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~ Mobile Stat #4: An Insatiable Need for Speed
Forget just processing more and more data. Consumers want to do it faster and faster, too. So it’s no surprise that the average mobile network connection speed more than doubled – to 526 kilobits per second (Kbps) – in 2012. But that still won’t cut it for the speed freaks. The end result? Mobile connection speeds are set to increase another seven-fold over the next five years, to reach almost 4 megabits per second (Mbps).

Newsflash: That’s not possible if companies don’t create new technologies to increase connection speeds. (Hint: investment opportunity ahead.)

~ Mobile Stat #5: Who Would Ever Want a Tablet? How About Everyone?!
It’s almost unfathomable that analysts originally doubted the market potential for tablets, particularly when Apple (AAPL) debuted its now iconic iPad. In reality, though, consumers are adopting tablets faster than any other consumer electronics device in history. However, we’re still nowhere near the peak of popularity or impact. Case in point: In the last year, the number of mobile-connected tablets more than doubled to 36 million. In the next five years, the amount of tablet-driven data will be 1.5 times higher than all mobile data traffic in the world today.

Against the backdrop of such runaway growth, a natural question arises: What’s the best way to profit?

Well, a single chart provides the answer.