By the end of this year 1 in 4 people around the world will own a smartphone (study)

As many as 1.76 billion people will own and use a smartphone by the end of 2014, according to the latest study by marketing research firm eMarketer.

Those 1.76 billion people make up approximately 25 percent of the total world population, and also represent a 25% jump in growth when compared to 2013 smartphone adoption stats, eMarketer claims.

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According to eMarketer, however, these stats do not reflect the individual adoption rates of many countries. “Consumers in the Asia-Pacific region,” eMarketer says, “will account for more than half of all global smartphone users this year.”

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Mirroring its predictions from January, eMarketer states that by 2017 more than 33 percent of people will use smartphones globally — a modest prediction when compared to an eariler study by Ericsson, which estimates that global smartphone penetration will reach 60% in 2019.

More, from eMarketer:

By 2015, we estimate that 15 countries worldwide will have seen more than half their populations adopt smartphones. The embrace of mobile technology among nearly 500 million people in these countries will have wide-ranging influence on media usage, ecommerce and marketing.

eMarketer’s statements are, however, forward-looking estimates and should not be interpreted as cold facts. In addition, some eMarketer studies have been debunked. The above prediction, however, is certainly plausible, as it’s backed by smartphone uptake trends in developing markets, according to firms like Pew Research. For comparison, Business Insider reported that one in every five people own a smartphone late 2013.