More than 90% of people older than 6 will have a mobile phone by 2020

The smartphone explosion is nothing new to even the most casual observer in the U.S., but in 2014 it became a global phenomenon, according mobile networking company Ericsson. A new report from the vendor projects that this year the world will see 800 million new smartphone subscriptions, bringing the global total to 2.7 billion connections. By the time the new year rolls around, smartphones will account 37 percent of all mobile subscriptions and in two years they will outnumber regular mobile phones across the globe, according to Ericsson’s latest Mobility Report, which compiles and analyzes data supplied by Ericsson’s carrier customers and industry analysts. In total, Ericsson expects the world to end 2014 with 7.1 billion mobile connections, though the vast majority of them (4 billion) will still be over 2G networks. While 4G networks are getting a lot of attention as they go live around the world, LTE still only covers about 20 percent of the world’s population, according to Ericsson.