• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, June 1, 2016

It’s obvious there are a lot of mobile phones in the world.

A bit over 7 billion, actually, based on the number of mobile subscriptions.

While that’s a large number of connected devices, it’s about to be passed by the number of connected things that make up the Internet of Things.

By 2018, just two years away, the number of connected devices will surpass the number of mobile phones, based on a new worldwide tally.

At that time, there will be 8 billion mobile phones and 9 billion IoT devices. And that number is growing at 23% a year.

Those connected things include consumer electronics, utility meters, connected cars, machines and remote metering.

And by 2021, there will be 28 billion connected devices, according to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report just out. Of those, 9 billion will be mobile phones while 16 billion will be IoT devices.

The largest number of connected devices will be in the Asia-Pacific region, followed by Western Europe and then the United States.

The large study is loaded with stats and projections on pretty much every aspect of mobile and IoT data traffic. Here are some:

• Teen usage of cellular data for smartphone video has grown 127% in 15 months
• By 2021, there will be 9 billion worldwide mobile subscriptions and 6 billion of them will be smartphones
• North America has the highest monthly data usage per active smartphone subscription globally
• By 2021 monthly data usage per active subscription in North America will be 22GB
• Asia Pacific will have the largest share of total smartphone traffic in 2021
• Mobile video traffic will grow 55% a year until 2021, when it will account for 70% of all mobile data traffic
• YouTube accounts for between 50% to 70% of total video traffic
• More than 85% of data traffic from smartphone video goes over Wi-Fi.
• Voice constitutes less than 5% of mobile traffic

All of these connected devices will open a new pathway to consumer communications.

And much of the marketing messaging that comes along for that gateway will be both combining with and graduating beyond the smartphone.