Thanks to Brough Turner for pointing out this post by Tomi Ahonen -

Putting 2.7 billion in context: Mobile phone users


The numbers are starting to come in for final numbers for 2006. As we discuss billions, it becomes difficult to put it all into context. Let me try to give some perspective to these enormous numbers.
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TELEPHONE 1.3 B

The telephone. And I'm now only talking about the fixed landline, traditional phone. The first home phone connections were sold as serious alert services, such as fire alarms for the wealthy. The original concept of the phone never incded an idea that people would use that device for idle chat. Today there are 1.3 billion fixed  landline phones in the world. The telephone touched all parts of life, changing just about all of it, from teenagers flirting on the phone, to families connecting to relatives far away, to businesses employing secretaries for busy bosses, to answer their phones.
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THE GOLIATH, MOBILE PHONES 2.7 B

Now we have context. 800 million cars, 850 million personal computers, 1.3 B fixed landline phones, 1.4 billion credit cards, 1.5 billion TV sets. How many mobile phones in use today? In use today, yes, 2.7 billion (technically 2.7 billion in January, not December). They sold 950 million phones last year and the total worldwide mobile subscriber base grew from 2.1 billion to 2.7 billion. Three times as many mobile phones as automobiles or personal computers. About twice as many mobile phone owners as those of fixed landline phones or credit cards. And almost twice as many mobile phones in use as TV sets.

Phones are very aspirational. We project our personalities via the interchangeable covers, various decorations, stickers, and the massive industry of ringing tones. We customize our phone services further with ringback (waiting) tones, welcoming tones and background tones. Young people assign the same kinds of value to their emerging personality, their own perceived coolness etc, through their mobile phone, like older generations did with their first car.
[Read Tomi's full article]