While 4G was a reasonably impressive improvement over its predecessor 3G in terms of speed, the brand new 5G is several orders of magnitude faster than that so much so that it might even serve as a broadband replacement in some areas. 5G is still a relatively recent invention, though, and a lot of phones that are used all around the world are not capable of supporting it with only the latest flagship models offered by major tech giants being suitable for it.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that 5G phones have managed to achieve a pretty huge amount of market penetration despite how new they are. According to a recent report released by Counterpoint, it turns out that 5G phones managed to achieve 51% market penetration back in January of 2022, and that means that they have surpassed 4G phones for the very first time thereby suggesting that they might now be the standard with 4G phones likely quickly descending into obscurity.
China had the highest amount of market penetration for 5G phones with 84%, and that has a lot to do with the infrastructure that was built there as well as the rapid innovation done by OEMs in that region to speed things along. North America and Western Europe are two other regions that are driving this growth, with market penetration rates in those areas being 73% and 76% respectively.
A lot of this growth has come from the creation of affordable smartphones that can access 5G networks thanks to chips that were created by Qualcomm as well as MediaTek. Some 5G ready smartphones are as cheap as $150, and this would obviously dramatically increase market penetration for this new form of mobile internet. Chances are that 4G will become thoroughly obsolete in just a few short years after other major regions like Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America start catching up with the rest of the world although that might take a bit longer due to a lack of infrastructure.
Read next: The Changing Faces of the World’s Richest People
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that 5G phones have managed to achieve a pretty huge amount of market penetration despite how new they are. According to a recent report released by Counterpoint, it turns out that 5G phones managed to achieve 51% market penetration back in January of 2022, and that means that they have surpassed 4G phones for the very first time thereby suggesting that they might now be the standard with 4G phones likely quickly descending into obscurity.
China had the highest amount of market penetration for 5G phones with 84%, and that has a lot to do with the infrastructure that was built there as well as the rapid innovation done by OEMs in that region to speed things along. North America and Western Europe are two other regions that are driving this growth, with market penetration rates in those areas being 73% and 76% respectively.
A lot of this growth has come from the creation of affordable smartphones that can access 5G networks thanks to chips that were created by Qualcomm as well as MediaTek. Some 5G ready smartphones are as cheap as $150, and this would obviously dramatically increase market penetration for this new form of mobile internet. Chances are that 4G will become thoroughly obsolete in just a few short years after other major regions like Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America start catching up with the rest of the world although that might take a bit longer due to a lack of infrastructure.
Read next: The Changing Faces of the World’s Richest People