Cisco has published its annual update, projecting mobile data and traffic growth for the next few years. The short story is usually the same: the growth will be exponential.
In more dramatic terms, growth will be explosive.
That appears to be the case again, given that the networking giant predicts mobile data traffic will topple an annual run rate of 190 exabytes in the next four years.
Researchers translated that to mean the equivalent of 14 images shared daily, for example, through Instagram. That might not seem like a lot -- at least for a social media addict -- but when counting every single person on the planet, it's nothing to shake your head at.
Following a similar pattern set in the e-commerce world over the holiday season (not to mention the PC industry in the last year or two), tablets continue to be the biggest disrupting factor.
For instance, total global mobile data traffic is projected to increase 11 times over from 2013 to 2018. Tablet traffic is going to be a major contributor, especially as the number of tablets in circulation are expected to grow sixfold by 2018. That's after tablet traffic is predicted to surpass laptop traffic in 2016.
Here's a glance at some of the other big numbers to know:
Cisco's complete Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Forecast is available online now.