A billion of anything is a lot, but IDC thinks we need to make room for a billion additional mobiles in the near future. It predicts that the billion in question is the number of new handsets that will have been sold this year by year end, globally. This figure is driven by both new sales in emerging markets, which are beginning to enter the same fast growth curve the more developed markets saw in the past five years, while mature markets are turning over new handset sales as replacements for older ones as new capabilities are integrated into mobile handsets and services (duh).



That’s good news not only for handset makers, but probably also for the hundreds of companies that make various tchotchkas for mobiles, from tacky faceplates to stick-on tattoos to unpardonable phone jewelry to flimsy cases and single-use chargers. Oh, and the trash man will have plenty of boxes and wrappers and dead batteries to collect. Hooray for a billion!

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