• by Mark Walsh , May 29, 2013

Smartphone penetration among mobile users last year reached 50% or higher in U.S., South Korea and Australia, the U.K., Sweden and Norway. The worldwide smartphone adoption rate among mobile users will remain under a third this year and approach the halfway mark by 2017, according to a new eMarketer forecast.

In regional terms, only North America will have average smartphone ownership above 50% this year, when Canada  joins the U.S. in crossing that threshold this year. Western Europe as a whole will reach that level in 2014. The eMarketer figures are based on more than 2,200 data points from 220 research sources.