Interesting stats about world wide cell phone usage- estimated at more than 60% of the world population, and larger adoption rates in developing countries.

" I think the exceptional pervasiveness and the unique affordances of cell phones are the two main reasons for all the fuss. And although cell phones are a big deal globally, they are an especial big deal in developing countries.

It is worth spending some time considering the access issue alone, although it is hard to separate this from the affordances because the matter is not merely about access to digital technology per se, it is about access to what is afforded by those technologies.

I have asked various people of late what they imagine the percentage of cell phone penetration is globally. The answers vary widely- from 20% on the one end to 80% on the other. The answer is 61%- yes that is sixty one per cent, almost two thirds of the world’s population owns a cell phone. (Yes, I know use is different but lets stick to ownership So, the total mobile subscriptions in 2009 are over 4 billion. And 1.15 billion new phones were sold in 2008. "

http://blogs.uct.ac.za/blog/laura-cet/2009/09/28/the-fuss-about-cell-phones