A TV in Every Pocket

By Brad

Cheaper laptops and devices like the iPhone are leading to a a coming explosion in mobile video, according to tech giant Cisco:

Almost 64 percent of the world’s mobile traffic will be video within the next five years, according to Cisco’s latest VNI (Visual Networking Index) Mobile Forecast for 2008-2013 released Feb. 10. They key driver of the mobile traffic will be laptops, netbooks and smartphones connecting to the network.

Overall, Cisco predicts global mobile traffic will increase 66-fold with a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 131 percent over that same five-year period. The growth rate primarily reflects the anticipated migration of users to a 4G mobile Internet that will allow consumers to view more mobile video and access a variety of mobile broadband services.

Better still, all this growth is expected to be unaffected by the current economy:

Despite a bleak economic climate, Doug Webster, a senior director for service provider marketing at Cisco, said the trend to a unbiqitous mobile Internet is undeniable.

“There were a half billion new subscribers to mobile networks last year alone,” Webster said. “Half of the world’s population is already on a mobile network. I really don’t think [the current economy] will have any great impact.”