Good thing we all have those emergency underground bunkers that don’t use any machines or computers whatsoever because robots are about to take over the world. Well, at least the robopocalypse is starting, as a report says mobile devices will outnumber humans in 2012.

Cisco’s prediction is included in its annual Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast (via PCMag) where it looked at worldwide mobile networks. A few telling statistics: mobile data traffic more than doubled last year, at a rate of 133% and will continue to grow by about 110% this year.

“Mobile data traffic will continue to explode,” Cisco’s vice president of service-provider marketing Suraj Shetty said in an interview. “This is a trend we don’t see slowing down.”

The reason for such skyrocketing rates is the continued influx of new devices available to consumers. And when it comes to using up data, we’re hungry, hungry hippos: Android users are gobbling up data at a rate of 29% higher than iOS users, and the overall amount of date used by the average mobile consumer is growing in general.

In five years, says Cisco, 60% of mobile users will use more than a gigabyte of mobile data each month, compared to only 0.5% that did in 2011.

Now back to the cyborg takeover of the world. Cisco says in no uncertain terms, as part of their report: “The number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the world’s population in 2012.”

There you have it. To the bunker, everyone! Don’t worry, I stocked up on Spam and Tang and have plenty of board games.
Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2011-2016 [Cisco]

Mobile Devices Will Outnumber Humans in 2012, Cisco Says [PCMag]

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