Ericsson: Smartphone Users in Indonesia Now Reach 38 Percent

Ericsson released the Mobility Report for the Southeast Asia and Oceania region for the first quarter of 2016. The report mentions key points related to smartphone trends, IoT, to the use of 4G and LTE globally. Also peeled, the greater the enthusiasm of the circle Millennial to content video streaming and social videos compared to conventional television shows.

In his presentation, President Director of Ericsson Indonesia Thomas Jul emphasized that the results of this survey were conducted globally and aimed to find out the latest trends and predictions for the future globally.

"From the data that has been collected, there are important things to note, especially by telecommunication operators in Indonesia," Thomas told the media in Jakarta.

Mobile subscription and subscriber

The Asia Pacific Region (APAC) shows a fairly high growth in terms of mobilesubscription and subscriber. Indonesia contributed to the growth in the number of new users by 5 million in the first quarter of 2016, bringing Indonesia to the third position in the APAC region, with India in the first position and Myanmar in the second position. Overall there was an increase of around 3% globally.

In the report mentioned smartphone penetration subscription in Indonesia in 2015 as much as 38% and it is estimated that by 2021 it will increase to 98%.

Thomas also mentioned that Indonesia has the highest number of smartphone subscriptions in Southeast Asia and Oceania, recorded at almost 100 million in 2015 and is predicted to grow to 250 million smartphone subscriptions by the end of 2021.

"Indonesia is listed as one of the countries in Asia Pacific with the highest number of smartphone ownership, and it is estimated that in 2018 smartphone users will beat cellular phone users.feature phone] in Indonesia,” said Thomas.

4G and LTE technology trends

The interesting thing that is also described in the Mobility Report is that in 2016 people have slowly started to leave 2G and 3G technology by switching to using 4G. Although currently 2G technology has been abandoned in Europe and America, the Asia Pacific region, especially Indonesia, is still unable to abandon 2G.

"Previously it was predicted that 2G technology would die entering 2016 to 2021, but the fact is that currently there are still many countries that use 2G technology, especially Indonesia. Slowly, it is possible for people to start switching to 4G and LTE technology," said Thomas.

During the first quarter of 2016 there were 150 million new LTE subscribers. It is estimated that by 2021 LTE technology users will reach 4,3 billion globally.

Data mobile broadband vs Wi-Fi

The report also discusses the habits of people who access the internet. Use mobile broadband and Wi-Fi is the choice of the user. In Indonesia, the use of the internet when accessing videos, chat platforms, and social media is dominated by the use of Wi-Fi. This is due to a Wi-Fi connection that is more stable and less wasteful. From the data collected by Ericsson, it can be seen that in 2015 the use of mobile broadband superior to Wi-Fi, however in 2016 the use of Wi-Fi is increasing in Indonesia.

When making comparisons of the average data mobile broadband and Wi-Fi growth in March 2016 and March 2015, average traffic data per user for mobile broadband and Wi-Fi in Indonesia grew by around 80%, the highest increase in Southeast Asia and Oceania. The demand for greater capacity and the highest data rates are two of the many factors that affect network performance on wireless access technology.

“Recognizing that subscription penetration mobile broadband is expected to grow close to 80% and smartphone subscription penetration will be more than 50% by the end of 2016, an increase of more than 150 million smartphone numbers between 2015 and 2021 is important for operators to continue to optimize network performance,” said Thomas.

Social media trends and video content

Another interesting thing noted by the Ericsson report is the habit of Indonesian people using the internet every day. It is said that YouTube is the most accessed application by the people of Indonesia, followed by WhatsApp, BlackBerry Messenger, Google and LINE. This survey was conducted throughout May 2016 on Android and iOS platforms.

Ericsson ConsumerLab also mentioned that in 2015 it was revealed that 2 out of 10 smartphone and internet users in Indonesia use all major application categories every day namely, social media, instant messaging and social videos.

Overall, based on a survey conducted in Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, YouTube is the most dominant application, followed by social media, video streaming, messaging and Browsing.

"Among" Millennial recorded as the category that uses social media the most, messaging and video streaming every day, making conventional media such as television slowly begin to be abandoned,” said Thomas.

Internet of Things (IoT) Trends

Between 2015 and 2021 the number of devices connected to the IoT is expected to grow 23% per year. Mobile IoT is predicted to experience high growth. Of the total 28 billion connected devices in 2021, nearly 16 billion will be IoT devices.

Asia Pacific shows a significant growth of IoT compared to other regions starting from 2009 and is predicted until 2021. However, Western Europe is the region that is predicted to adopt the most IoT technology, especially using connections for cars.

In addition to automotive, other facilities that have the potential to be connected with IoT technology are industrial applications, remote manufacturing, health, driving safety (traffic safety).

“Today IoT is accelerating as device prices drop and innovative applications emerge. From 2020 commercial implementations of 5G networks will provide important additional capabilities for IoT, such as network slicing and and the capacity to connect more devices than now,” said Ericsson Senior Vice President & CSO Rima Qureshi.