The global mobile phone market has almost reached the saturation point, and therefore further growth in sales will be limited by unambiguous indicators, analysts forecast Forrester Research.

A recent study, published by eWeek, reports that the number of users of mobile devices in the world will increase from 4.8 billion in 2016 to 4.9 billion in 2017, and by 2022 the figure will exceed 5.5 Billion people.

According to experts, this year the number of mobile subscribers using smartphones will be 2.8 billion people, and 1 billion more will be limited to devices such as feature phone.

In five years, the penetration rate of smartphones globally will reach 67%, more than tripling compared to 2013 in 21%. It is expected that about 3.8 billion people in the world will use smartphones, and the number of owners of the feature phone will decrease to 433 million.

Experts also note that tablets continue to suffer from cannibalization - their share in the market is "eaten" by so-called fablets, large-sized smartphones. A particularly pronounced trend is in China, India, Indonesia and Africa, where smartphones are often the main device for accessing the Internet. People prefer large smartphones, because with their help it is more convenient to watch video content and go to social networks. In addition, the popularity of the tablets contributes to the reduction in prices for them thanks to the efforts of Chinese manufacturers.