25 Top Smartphone Statistics For 2024 (Latest Facts & Trends)

Ready for our collection of the latest smartphone statistics?

Smartphones are dominating the internet and cell phone usage alike. First, they changed the way we interact with the internet.

Now, they’ve changed the way we live our daily lives. You can use your smartphone to conduct business meetings, schedule doctor’s appointments, order lunch and even request travel on the spot.

In this post, we’ve collected the latest statistics on these devices and have arranged them into categories on usage statistics, app statistics and stats on mobile commerce.

General smartphone statistics

1. 90% of Americans own smartphones

According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, only 35% of Americans owned a smartphone in 2011.

Pew Research conducted that same survey in September of 2023 and discovered that 90% of Americans now own smartphones.

Source: Pew Research Center

2. Apple’s smartphone market share is 28.46%

According to StatCounter, Apple’s smartphone market share is 28.46%.

Samsung’s smartphone market share is 23.86%.

Xiaomi’s is 11.58%, Oppo’s is 5.9% and Vivo’s is 5.08%.

8.05% of the market is unknown.

Source: StatCounter

3. 97% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 49 own smartphones

According to Pew Research Center’s survey, smartphone ownership is highest among younger generations:

• 18 to 29 – 97% of consumers in this age group own smartphones
• 30 to 49 – 97%
• 50 to 64 – 89%
• 65+ – 76%

Source: Pew Research Center

4. There are 5.61 billion mobile subscribers in the world

In DataReportal’s latest report on the state of the internet, which includes partnerships from multiple data sources, there are 5.61 billion unique mobile subscribers in the world.

This means there are 5.61 billion people in the world who use a mobile device with an active cellular plan from a cellular provider.

This is an increase of 2.5% from the previous year’s report, which means there are now an additional 138 million mobile subscribers in the world.

DataReportal also states that 69.4% of the world’s population are mobile subscribers.

Source: DataReportal

5. There are 8.65 billion cellular mobile connections in the world

According to DataReportal’s report, although there are 5.61 billion mobile subscribers in the world, there are 8.65 billion cellular mobile connections.

This figure includes mobile devices that aren’t supported by an active cellular plan. For example, you can use an app like WhatsApp to send messages without a phone number.

However, it excludes mobile technology related to IoT (internet of things) connections, such as Bluetooth devices, self-driving vehicles, sensors that are currently in a factory, etc.

8.65 billion is a 1.9% increase from DataReportal’s report from the previous year, which means there was an additional 160 million cellular mobile connections in 2023.

Source: DataReportal

6. 82% of cellular mobile connections originate from smartphones

DataReportal’s report states that the vast majority of all cellular mobile connections, or 82% of all cellular mobile connections, originate from smartphones.

This represents 6.97 billion of all cellular mobile connections.

15%, or 1.28 billion connections, originate from feature phones, such as flip phones.

3%, or 256 million connections, originate from routers, tablets and mobile PCs.

Source: DataReportal

7. There are 7.98 billion broadband mobile connections in the world

DataReportal’s report states that there were 7.98 billion broadband mobile connections around the world in 2023.

This figure represents the number of wireless internet connections that were made through mobile networks, such as AT&T and Verizon, in 2023.

Broadband mobile connections represent 92.3% of all mobile connections.

Source: DataReportal

8. Mobile phones represent 31.3% of all connected devices

In DataReportal’s latest report on the web, they discovered that when you include all types of connected devices, mobile phones represent 31.3%.

This is 8.27 billion connected devices.

Short-range IoT devices have the largest market share in this regard:

• Short-range IoT devices – These devices represent 46.9%, or 12.39 billion, of all connected devices
• Mobile phones – 31.3%, or 8.27 billion
• Wide-area IoT devices – 12.5%, or 3.32 billion
• PCs, laptops and tablets – 6.3%, or 1.67 billion
• Fixed phones – 3%, or 0.80 billion

Source: DataReportal

9. 15% of Americans say they don’t use broadband at home but own smartphones

According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 8% of Americans said they didn’t use broadband at home but owned smartphones in 2013.

That number has almost doubled in 2023, in which 15% of Americans say they don’t use broadband at home but own smartphones.

This figure spiked to 20% in 2018 and 17% in 2019 but dropped down to 15% by 2021 following the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a surge of internet users relying on home internet for work and school.

Source: Pew Research Center

Smartphone usage statistics

10. Mobile users in the United States spend an average of four hours and 19 minutes on mobile phones everyday

According to DataReportal’s data on Android users’ daily use of cell phones, mobile users in the United States spend four hours and 19 minutes on mobile phones on average everyday.

Indonesian mobile phone users spend the most amount of time on mobile phones at a daily average of six hours and three minutes.

Swiss cell phone users spend the least amount of time at a daily average of two hours and 21 minutes.

Source: DataReportal

11. 143.14EB of cellular data is consumed around the world on a monthly basis

EB stands for exabyte, which is a unit of measurement equal to 1 billion gigabytes (GB) or 1,000 petabytes (PB).

Collectively, mobile users use 143.14EB of cellular data every month on average.

95.19EB of that data comes from video applications like YouTube.

Here’s how many EB we consume monthly based on activity:

• Video applications – Mobile users spend 95.19EB of cellular data every month doing this activity
• Social networking – 11.27EB
• Software updates – 4.07EB
• Web browsing – 2.55EB
• Audio applications – 1.80EB
• File sharing – 0.70EB

We consume a total of 15.30EB every month consuming other apps not within these categories.

Source: DataReportal

12. The average smartphone consumes 21.1GB of data per month

DataReportal states that smartphone owners around the world consume 21.1GB of data per smartphone on average.

This average rises every quarter.

For instance, the total amount of data consumed per smartphone was 126GB in Quarter 1 of 2023, 133.86GB in Quarter 2 and 143.14GB in Quarter 3.

13. Smartphone users worldwide spend 72.7% of the amount of data they consume browsing video applications

The average smartphone consumes 21.13GB of data every month.

72.7% of that data is spent browsing video applications.

Here’s how much of that data is spent doing different activities:

• Video applications – Global smartphone users spend 72.7% of their data on this app category
• Social networking – 8.6%
• Software updates – 3.1%
• Web browsing – 2.0%
• Audio applications – 1.4%
• File sharing – 0.5%

Smartphone users spend 11.7% of their data on various other app categories.

Source: DataReportal

14. The average smartphone user in North America consumes an average of 25.9GB of data every month

North America’s data usage is slightly higher than the global average.

On average, North Americans use 25.9GB of cellular data per smartphone on a monthly basis.

Here’s how this compares to other regions:

• India, Nepal and Bhutan – Smartphone users consume a monthly average of 30.9GB of data per smartphone in this region
• Gulf Cooperation Council countries – 30.1GB
• Western Europe – 26.6GB
• North America – 25.9GB
• Southeast Asia and Oceania – 23.5GB
• Northeast Asia – 21.2GB
• Central and Eastern Europe – 18.5GB
• Middle East and North Africa – 17.1GB
• Latin America – 15.2GB
• Sub-Saharan Africa – 6.7GB

Source: DataReportal

15. 70.48% of all mobile web traffic originates from Android devices

A huge majority of all mobile web traffic originates from Android devices. The key word here is “devices,” so this statistic also includes tablets.

The statistic states that 70.48% of mobile web traffic comes from these devices, which is a 2.6% decrease from the previous year.

iOS devices more or less make up the rest of the majority for mobile web traffic.

28.8% of all mobile web traffic originates from iOS devices, which is a 6.7% increase from DataReportal’s report from the previous year.

Other sources of mobile web traffic include Samsung OS devices (these devices represent 0.37% of all mobile web traffic) and KaiOS devices (0.14%).

Additional mobile-based operating systems represent 0.21% of all mobile web traffic collectively.

Source: DataReportal

16. Smartphone users spend 34.7% of time spent on smartphones browsing social media apps

DataReportal’s report states that globally, smartphone users spend five hours and one minute on their phones everyday on average.

34.7% of that time is spent on social media apps. 31.4% is spent on entertainment.

Here are other ways in which smartphone users spend their time:

• Social media apps – Smartphone users spend 34.7% of their time with this activity
• Entertainment apps – 31.4%
• Utility and productivity – 14.4%
• Mobile games – 11.1%
• Web browsers and search engines – 6.3%
• Shopping apps – 1.5%

All other app types represent 6.8% of time spent on smartphones collectively.

Source: DataReportal

17. 35% of mobile phone users have made a video call in the past month

DataReportal’s latest report on the state of the internet includes data from surveys conducted by data partners.

One survey revealed that globally, 35% of mobile phone users between the ages of 16 and 64 have made a video call within the last month.

41.1% of mobile phone users in the United States have made at least one video call within that time frame.

The highest country is Nigeria at 53.8% while the lowest is Japan at 10.3%.

Source: DataReportal

Smartphone app statistics

18. Smartphone users downloaded 35.2 billion apps in one quarter

DataReportal’s report includes data on mobile phone use on a quarter by quarter basis.

They discovered that throughout Quarter 3 of 2023, mobile users downloaded 35.2 billion apps.

This is an 11.3%, or 4.5 billion, decrease in the number of apps downloaded during the previous quarter.

Source: DataReportal

19. Smartphone users spent $32.86 billion on apps in one quarter

DataReportal’s report also included data on how much mobile phone users spend on apps.

They discovered that throughout Quarter 3 of 2023, smartphone users spent $32.86 billion on apps.

This is a 3%, or $699 million, increase from the previous quarter.

Source: DataReportal

20. The Arcade & Action game category had the highest downloads over one quarter at 3.64 billion downloads

According to DataReportal’s report, the app category with the highest downloads in Quarter 3 of 2023 was the Arcade & Action app category, which is a game category.

This app category had 3.64 billion downloads during this timeframe, which was an 8.1% decrease in downloads from the previous quarter.

Here were other top app categories in Quarter 3 of 2023:

• Arcade & Action (Game category) – This app category had 3.64 billion downloads during this timeframe. This was an 8.1% decrease from the previous quarter.
• Tools (App category) – 3.40 billion; +1.6%
• Brain & Buzzle (Game) – 3.34 billion; +1.9%
• Kids & Family (App) – 2.64 billion; +3.1%
• Social (App) – 2.32 billion; -2.7%
• Entertainment (App) – 1.90 billion; -0.7%
• Photo & Video (App) – 1.87 billion; -2.0%
• Simulation (Game) – 1.83 billion; -5.1%
• Finance (App) – 1.71 billion; -5.0%
• Role Playing & Strategy (Game) – 1.65 billion; -8.1%

Source: DataReportal

21. Smartphone users spent $9.31 billion on Role Playing & Strategy game apps over one quarter

The app category with the highest amount of consumer spend was the Role Playing & Strategy app category, which is a gaming category.

Users spent $9.31 billion on this category in Quarter 3 of 2023.

Here’s how much users spent on other categories:

• Role Playing & Strategy (Game category) – Smartphone users spent $9.31 billion on this category in Quarter 3 of 2023. This was an 8.1% decrease from the previous quarter.
• Arcade & Action (Game) – $5.28 billion; -8.1%
• Brain & Puzzle (Game) – $3.61 billion; +1.9%
• Cards & Casino (Game) – $3.52 billion; -5.5%
• Entertainment (App) – $3.21 billion; -0.7%
• Adventure (Game) – $2.41 billion; -4.1%
• Simulation (Game) – $2.19 billion; -5.1%
• Social (App) – $1.64 billion; -2.7%
• Photo & Video (App) – $1.47 billion; -2.0%
• Lifestyle (App) – $1.20 billion; -3.4%

Source: DataReportal

Smartphone sales statistics

22. 1.4 billion smartphones were sold in 2022

Statista has been keeping records of the smartphone market since 2007 when the first iPhone was released.

In 2007, 122.32 million smartphones were sold around the world.

According to their data on smartphone sales, smartphone usage growth has increased exponentially since then.

In 2022, 1,395.25 million units were sold, which translates into 1.395 billion.

Source: Statista¹

23. 1.17 billion smartphones were shipped around the world in 2023

Statista has been keeping track of global smartphone shipments since 2009.

According to their data, 173.5 million smartphones were shipped globally in 2009.

That number reached 1,166.9 million in 2023, which translates to 1.17 billion units shipped in 2023.

Source: Statista²

Mobile commerce statistics

24. 29.9% of consumers around the world buy something online from their mobile phones every week

Data from DataReportal’s latest report states that 29.9% of consumers between the ages of 16 and 64 engage in mobile shopping every week.

This rate is 35.2% in the United States.

It’s highest in South Korea at 44.4% and lowest in Nigeria at 7.6%.

This makes mobile crucial for anyone in the ecommerce space.

Source: DataReportal

25. 34.8% of consumers between the ages of 35 and 44 complete at least one online purchase from their mobile phones every week

According to DataReportal, mobile commerce is mostly popular among consumers between the ages of 35 and 44.

It’s least popular among younger and older generations alike:

• 16 to 24 – 25.65% of consumers in this age group engage in mobile commerce on a weekly basis
• 25 to 34 – 31.1%
• 35 to 44 – 34.8%
• 45 to 54 – 31.15%
• 55 to 64 – 25.3%

Source: DataReportal

Final thoughts

These smartphone statistics prove how smartphones, and mobile devices in general, have changed our daily habits.

Even older generations are adopting smartphones for things like online shopping and video calling.

Plus, although Android makes up a huge portion of the market in terms of actual usage, Apple dominates the market in terms of sales.

Social media and entertainment are huge uses for smartphones, so be sure to check out our latest collection of statistics on social media as well.

Sources

• Pew Research Center
• StatCounter
• DataReportal
• Statista¹
• Statista²