By 2020 advanced mobile technology will be commonplace around the globe, according to findings from the latest edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report. Smartphone subscriptions will more than double, reaching 6.1 billion, 70 percent of the world's population will be using smartphones, and 90 percent will be covered by mobile broadband networks.
Video traffic will also grow 55 percent per year until 2020 and will constitute around 60 percent of all mobile data traffic by the end of that period. Growth is largely driven by shifting user preferences towards video streaming services, and the increasing prevalence of video in online content including news, advertisements and social media.
Technology adoption in the vending industry has been occurring slowly. Automatic Merchandiser’s 2015 State of the Vending Industry report revealed that in 2014, 10.1 percent of operators added at least one mobile payment solution to machines, bringing total machines with a mobile payment feature to 7 percent (out of an estimated 5.1 million machine base). Meanwhile, 11 percent of operators added at least one video screen last year, meaning 2.6 percent of total machines are equipped with video screens.
