If you're not selling smartphones to your customers, start now. That's the overriding message from research carried out by business advisor Deloitte into trends in the UK telecommunications sector.
The research claims that in the UK 92% of adults and 85% of people aged between 55 and 75 will have a smartphone by 2023 and by the end of that year the smartphone will be the most used digital device.
Deloitte also predicts that global smartphone sales will be 1.85 billion per year in 2023, a 19% increase over 2018, equivalent to more than five million units sold every day.
Dan Adams, partner and head of telecommunications at Deloitte, commented: "Over the past 10 years the smartphone has redefined how people live and interact with each other.
"Over the next five, the smartphone will enter an era of 'invisible innovation', with under-the-surface improvements to connectivity, memory, sensors and artificial intelligence. Technology such as 5G and artificial intelligence will become prevalent, and this will have considerable ramifications for the work of business.
"For half of the UK's workforce, the smartphone may be the ideal digital tool: its merits are its portability, biometric security and constant connection. The smartphone will drive much of the next phase of business process reinvention, providing a digital tool for the tens of millions of workers in the UK whose roles are not desk-based."