The world has added more than a billion mobile phone subscribers in the last four years alone, with the total number reaching 3.2 billion, almost half the earth's population, organisers of an industry event here said.
More than a billion of these devices are smartphones, bringing the disruptive power of internet connectivity to both professional and social spheres — whether through the 10.5 million jobs supported directly by the mobile ecosystem, or through proliferation of apps that change the way we perceive and interact with the world.
The Saudi mobile phone market is the largest in the Middle East and boasts one of the highest mobile penetrations in the world, with 53 million subscriptions by 2013, and a mobile penetration rate of 181.6% — almost 2 mobiles per user
Leaders in mobile business and decision makers across sectors will convene to discuss the latest trends and opportunities in mobility at the 3rd edition of ArabNet Riyadh, the largest digital gathering in Saudi Arabia, taking place from November 11-13.
In amongst the new features ushered in with Android KitKat was a screencasting capability-a native tool for capturing on-screen activity in a video file. Whether you want to show off your app, share your Angry Birds prowess or start a series of Android troubleshooting videos, it's not difficult to get the functionality up and running, as we'll explain in the steps below.
Before we go any further, you will need Android 4.4 KitKat running on your phone or tablet to follow this guide, as the native feature isn't available in earlier versions. You'll also need to activate developer mode on your device but there's no need for root access if you don't mind using a computer. There are a handful of different ways you can tackle the job-including using third-party apps-but here we'll focus on the native capabilities built into Android 4.4 KitKat.
Laying the foundations
First you're going to need to get your phone or tablet into developer mode. Head to the About section of the Settings app then tap the Build number seven times. Congratulations! You're now a developer, with a brand new Developer options menu. Head into this and tick the USB debugging option and confirming your choice.
Next, you need the Android SDK software package, which you can download straight from Google for your desktop operating system of choice. Once you've installed the suite of tools, your computer is able to give your mobile device the screen capture commands. If you're on a Windows machine then you also need to download the relevant USB drivers for your phone or tablet.
All of this makes sure your desktop computer can talk to your phone or tablet in the right language. The installations aren't difficult, but you can find plenty of online tutorials if you run into problems. There are a few extra pointers in our guide to installing the Android L preview. You can put the Android SDK files anywhere on your system as long as you remember where they are.
Capturing screencasts
With all that software set up we're just about ready to start capturing video. Connect up your device to your computer and make sure the USB storage option is set to Camera (PTP) rather than Media device (MTP) - you should be able to access the relevant option from the drop-down notification drawer.
Open up a command prompt from the sdk/platform-tools folder where you've extracted the Android SDK package. In Windows File Explorer you can do this through the File menu or via the menu that appears with a Shift+right-click combination; on a Mac, use the Terminal app. Use the command adb devices to make sure this is going to work. If nothing is listed, you've gone wrong somewhere.
The command adb shell screenrecord /sdcard/video.mp4 is the one you need to start the screencasting, replacing "video" with the filename of your choice (you can choose a different path as well if you like). On-screen activity will be recorded as a video file in the location you've selected until you press Ctrl+C(or Cmd+C) on your computer. You can then open, export and edit the video as you like, either on your device on on your connected machine.
If you want viewers to be able to keep up with what you're doing on your Android device then you might want to switch on the Show touches option from the Developer options menu we mentioned earlier. There are also a number of additional parameters you can add to the screen record command (such as setting a time limit). Type adb shell screenrecord -help to see what your options are.
That's all there is to it-fairly painless and useful for a whole range of purposes. If you've already rooted your device then you can trigger the screen record command using a third-party app without the need for a computer, and there are several available to do the job on Google Play (SCR Screen Recorder Proand KitKat Screen Capture for example).
Even though Apple Pay, the company's mobile wallet, may not see the light of day in India anytime soon, local mobile wallets are finally seeing acceptance.
Citrus Pay, a Mumbai-based mobile wallet has tied up INOXmovie theatre chain wherein popcorn's can be ordered while watching a movie using a mobile app at a touch of a button. Citrus is also tying with major Indian airlines and metro rail services for its mobile wallet.
Citrus Cash', the company's mobile wallet will now work as a pre-paid instrument in the Radio Taxi category and Meru cabs will be the first partner to use it. The fare amount for the user will automatically be deducted from the Citrus Cash wallet after the Meru ride is complete. The idea behind Citrus Cash integration in the app is to allow users to make Zero-click cashless payment.
Amrish Rau, Managing Director, Citrus Payment Solutions Pvt. Ltd., commented, "Time is of utmost importance in today's fast paced world and we are trying to solve consumer's need and preference for faster ways to make payments in a secure manner."
Meru users can pre-load the amount in Citrus wallet from within the Meru app itself or from the Citrus Cash app and can walk out of the cab as soon as the trip ends. Citrus authenticates the user's on multiple parameters in real time and allows for a Zero-Click payment.
Rau told ET that soon Citrus Cash customers will be able to use the same wallet to buy movie tickets at INOX, food at fast food chain Fasos and book bus tickets at Abhibus.com. "We are in talks with many large airlines and metro rail services to allow mobile wallet to be used for buying tickets quickly and conveniently," Rau said.
Vodafone India on Monday partnered with Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation's (IRCTC) Bharat BPO to allow online booking of railway tickets through mobile phones with Vodafone M-Pesa as a payment option. In June last year, Bharti Airtel also entered into a similar arrangement with IRCTC to offer e-reservations through its mobile wallet service Airtel Money.
Google is embarking on a project that will let you interact with any smart device via your mobile Chrome browser. The project, dubbed "The Physical Web," seeks to do away with the need for native applications in order to create machine-to-device interactions.
The Physical Web was launched on GitHub by Scott Jenson, Google's interaction and user experience designer. On the page, Google claims The Physical Web "isn't about replacing native apps: it's about enabling interaction when native apps just aren't practical."
Google lists the following practical use cases for the project: A bus stop that tells you the next bus arrival; parking meters and vending machines that let you pay quickly and easily via your mobile device; a ZipCar that broadcasts a signup page as you walk by, thereby allowing you to immediately register and drive away.
Internet of Things?
If this sounds eerily similar to The Internet of Things, it is. Both The Physical Web and The Internet of Things are designed to provide machine-to-machine connections that improve user experiences based on data. However, rather than banking on device users to download manufacturer apps for each digital interaction, Google is trying to make Chrome the host of these connections.
Google is defining The Physical Web as a discovery service that broadcasts URLs to nearby devices. The URLs can feature a web page with just a tiny paragraph of information, a fully interactive web page, or a deep link into a native application, according to Google
The chances are you've already heard someone mention the Internet of Things, and it's certainly a phrase that you are going to hear more and more in the coming years, so what exactly is it?
At its most basic, the Internet of Things is the, frankly horrible, term used to describe the millions of devices that are now connected together and to the internet but that do not require humans to tell them what data to share.
Everything from fitness bands to internet connected fridges, smart thermostats to microchipped street lights can all feed data back to the net with or without our behest, and that's potentially a hugely powerful shift in the way that we live our lives.
Chips
With the simple addition of an RFID chip right up to much more complicated processors, objects and devices in our everyday lives can now be spilling out data online without any need for us to choose what to upload. Obviously that brings implications - both good and bad - but it's an immensely powerful technology.
If both our devices and us can access huge amounts of information we can begin to take some very powerful actions.
Let's start with a really simple example: street lighting. At its most basic having a processor chip and a connection would make it really easy to see when there's a problem like a blown bulb, but when you have this data you can also allow computers to make a series of logical connections that save you time.
Intelligent street lighting is already here
For instance, a computer could see how many bulbs have blown across the entire network and make sensible decisions, based on empirical data, about how many new bulbs must be ordered.
It could predict the average time a bulb will last and potentially alert of future problems, it could spot anomalies that suggest vandalism or less predictable problems. It could be made to smartly switch on and off when there's nobody there and nobody about to arrive.
Life-enabling
Mike Muller, the CTO of ARM, the chip company that is investing millions in staying ahead of the curve with small, cheap and efficient processors and sensors that are at the heart of this next wave, suggests another example.
"If you look at something like putting a wireless microcontroller in every parking space then you can see if there's a car in the space. When you attach that to a mesh network all that information is pushed up to the web... as a punter you can check an app and it tells you where you can park."
"For the consumer it's handy, but one of the bigger reasons for doing it is the business objective of saying: 'I now know these car parks are busy and when so I can do dynamic pricing'. You can use it as a business tool. That's an IOT application."
On a smaller level, there are potentially thousands of applications within our homes that could become powerfully effective.
Cerf: A huge advocate of IoT
Vint Cerf - now Chief Internet Evangelist at Google but best known as one of the founding fathers of the internet - explains how his house takes advantage of connected objects and devices.
"I happen to have this sensory network running at home - these little sensors run on two AA cells and they last for about a year - each one is about the size of a mobile and its monitoring temperature, humidity and light levels in the house every five minutes and that information is transmitted to a server down in the basement.
Vint Cerf: "I happen to have this sensory network running at home - these sensors run on two AA cells and last about a year."
"Now these little sensors are also network nodes - and they are forming a mesh network on their own and they change their connectivity depending on what the network linkages look like so the information is sent through the network to the target.
"At the end of the year I have an accumulation of real data about how well the heating, ventilation and air conditioning has worked - this is proper engineering data and it means I can figure out how to adjust the systems."
Corking idea
Cerf isn't stopping there, and he has applied this logical gathering of data to one of his passions - his wine cellar.
"It occurred to me that in the case of the wine cellar that this is a very important room in the house because there are a couple of thousand bottles of wine in there. I need to keep it below 60 degrees fahrenheit so if the temperature goes up over that because the system fails I get an SMS on my mobile.
"I thought about this and realised that, seeing as I can also tell if the lights have gone off and on, I might be able to figure out if someone has gone into the wine cellar while I was away.
"So my next project is to put RFID chips on each bottle and then have a sensor so I can take inventory instantaneously to see if any bottles have left the cellar without my permission.
Home interfaces for devices are becoming common sights
"I was proudly explaining this to one of my engineering friends and he said, 'There's a bug,' so I said, 'What do you mean there's a bug?' and he replied: 'Well you could go in and drink the wine and leave the bottle'.
Mike Muller, ARM CTO: "Everyone talks about big data but I'm into little data."
"That means I now have to put sensors in the cork and if you are going to do that you may as well sample the esters - which is what makes the wine taste the way it does.
"So before you open the bottle you would interrogate the cork and if that's the bottle that got up to 75 degrees, that's the bottle you give to someone who doesn't know the difference."
Big data, big concerns
That's all very well, but all this information being uploaded in huge amounts that would be difficult for humans to process efficiently (generally referred to as 'Big Data') is still information, and logical assumptions being made can swing both ways and be used both to help us, help monetise us for companies and, potentially, to harm us as well.
"Everyone talks about big data but I'm into little data," says ARM's Muller . "Our job is to make the little data available - if that data is "my space in this carpark is empty" someone else can turn that into a big data app of pricing models etc.
"We do little data and the question 'is who owns the little data?'. Take my Wi-Fi enabled weighing scales - it's my data - it uploads to my account and a family account, I'd share it with my gym so my personal trainer can nag me but I don't want the gym to sell that to my life insurance company.
"If you take something like the GPS insurance boxes for cars that you can get to keep your insurance down, it's their box, their data and they can do what the like with that. Imagine if they contact your life insurer and tell them 'Mr X is probably going to die because he drives dangerously'."
Data duplicity
Even something as simple as Cerf's heating data could be used in a variety of ways (good and bad) if it was public; showing when he is not at home for instance for any eagle-eyed burglars, or if you were a wine vendor you could time a brochure for the exact time his cellar supply was lagging and if the temperatures were fluctuating then it could alert a plumber.
The true genius of the Internet of Things is actually the power of being able to process and make conclusions from huge amounts of empirical data, and that is something that we are increasingly in a position to do quickly and efficiently and, often, without the need for any human input.
Cerf himself recognises the potential problems with a truly connected world, telling an anecdote about that most famous trope of connected home devices, the humble fridge.
Do you want your fridge judging you?
"I've often wondered what else you could do with an internet enabled refrigerator and I thought, you know, if you had a little RFID chip on everything you had in the refrigerator it would know everything that it had inside," he says.
"When you are off at work it can be surfing for recipes for the stuff it knows it has inside so when you come back you see a nice list of recipes that you could do for dinner.
"You could extrapolate this: you can imagine maybe you are on holiday and you get an email - it's from your refrigerator and it says 'that milk you put in me three weeks ago - it's about to crawl out on its own now' or maybe you're shopping and you get a text message saying don't forget the marinara sauce then I'll have everything I need for spaghetti dinner tonight.
"I have to tell you that our Japanese friends have really destroyed this idyllic vision. They've developed a set of internet-enabled scales so when you get on it figures out what family member you are and then uploads that information to the web and to the medical record with your doctor.
"That seems perfectly okay but the problem is that the refrigerator is on the same network so when you get home you see diet recipes coming up or maybe it just refuses to open. So it's a terrible idea."
Oversharing
Indeed, many believe we shouldn't be rushing to put chips and tags on all of our possessions. Nest, a company that makes smart devices such as thermostats and smoke alarms is run by ex-iPod chief Tony Fadell - and he was adamant that some data is just not worth gathering (yet).
"Just because you can connect something doesn't mean that you should," he insists.
"Connection is another technology that can dramatically change a product and an experience but people are just connecting anything.
NEST's well-received thermostat
"People are like, I am going to bash Wi-Fi with a toaster, or with a kettle. The other day I saw that someone was doing it with a water bottle. It doesn't make sense.
"You have to think about the entire experience of the product. Once you rethink the entire product, then connectivity is right.
Tony Fadell: "Just because you can connect something doesn't mean that you should."
"There are some products that can be rethought with connectivity. We are showing this at Nest but not everything needs to have the full smartphone experience."
Things done changed
It's clear that keeping a firm grip on data is of paramount importance to both business and individuals. Data is neither good nor bad, but it can be used for both and the Internet of Things is a mechanism that is uniquely placed to provide the next wave of information.
The utopian view of a huge AI benignly making our environment safer, more productive and more interesting has the Internet of Things at its heart, but so does the more dystopian Orwellian nightmare scenario where our every move is monitored.
The likely truth is that the future lies somewhere between the two, but it's okay to be both wary of the repercussions and thrilled by the potential as we make our way inexorably down the path to a truly connected world.
Microsoft says the next version of Windows won't be "one UI to rule them all," but a single product family with an interface specially tuned for each device.
How do you get everyone’s attention if you’re not the world’s most sought-after smartphone or tablet maker, but still the world’s largest operating system manufacturer by miles?
You do something a little weird, say formally skip a version of your operating system, chronologically speaking. If your company name happens to be Microsoft, that means you leap (instead of hop) from Windows 8 right over the wondering heads of pundits proclaiming the imminent arrival of “9” and on to something dubbed “Windows 10.”
What happened to 9? Who knows. Call it a very public sacrifice to the gods of predictability.
Microsoft made the announcement today during an offline press event, then on its Windows blog, where it said Windows was “at a threshold,” and that it was “time for a new Windows … built from the ground-up for a mobile-first, cloud-first world.”
We know a little bit about Windows 10 already, but only a little bit. The Start Menu is coming back (not a surprise). Everything will now run in a window, including Windows Store apps. Snapping now supports up to four simultaneous apps (and you’ll be able to see other apps available for snapping). You can have multiple desktops, and there’s a new “task-view” button on the taskbar will let you switch between open files as well as alternative desktops. And File Explorer will now display your most recent files and frequently visited folders.
The number you slap behind your iconic IP, of course, means nothing when it comes to actually delivering on promises made at press events. It’s simply the marketing cap and sequential delimiter companies like Microsoft and Apple use to establish that this is what this thing does as opposed to that one. But find your mainline product sporting alowernumber than a competitor’s, and all marketing bets are off. Microsoft’s been in the single digits with Windows forever, whereas Apple’s been on the 10th iteration of its Mac-based OS X (technically pronounced “oh-ess-ten”) for well over a decade, simply adding a “dot” (and codename) to signify major releases.It’s not clear whether Windows 8’s potentially behind-looking proximity to Apple’s ten-based naming scheme forced Microsoft’s hand (or galvanized its marketing team), but let’s just say the theory’s at least of passing interest.
Forbes released its annual Forbes 400 list on Monday, revealing the 400 wealthiest people in the US.
It's not just a list of privilege; it's a story of opportunity. Many of these mega successes started with limited means.
Just ask Jan Koum, the WhatsApp founder who once lived on food stamps. After selling his company to Facebook in February for $19 billion, he's now worth $7.7 billion, Forbes estimates.
Then there's Larry Ellison, who worked eight years of odd jobs before founding Oracle. He's one of the biggest dollar gainers since last year, making a $9 billion jump in net worth from 2013.
It's not only an American Dream. Several international entrepreneurs have had similarly meteoric rises. Talk to Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who started his career as an English teacher and is now worth over $20 billion after taking his company public.
These rags-to-riches stories remind us that through determination, grit, and a bit of luck anyone can overcome their circumstances and achieve extraordinary success.
Jan Koum, the CEO and cofounder of WhatsApp, once lived on food stamps before Facebook made him a billionaire.
Net worth: $7.7 billion (according to Forbes)
Koum, 37, came to the US from Ukraine when he was 16 years old. His family, struggling to make ends meet, lived on food stamps that they picked up a couple blocks away from Koum's future WhatsApp offices in Mountain View, California.
In 2009, he and cofounder Brian Acton launched the real-time messaging app with an aim to connect people around the world. It essentially replaces text messaging.
WhatsApp, which now has over 600 million global users, agreed to a $19 billion buyout from Facebook earlier this year.
The deal made Koum a multibillionaire.
Jack Ma taught English before founding Alibaba in 1999.
Net worth: $20.2 billion
Born in Hangzhou, China, Ma grew up in poverty. He couldn't get a job at the local KFC. He failed the national college entrance exams — twice — before finally graduating and starting his career as an English teacher.
Then, in 1995, he had his first visit to the US. He saw the internet for the first time.
Recognizing that there was little in the way of Chinese content online, he started China Pages, a directory that was arguably the very first Chinese web startup. It promptly failed.
In 1999, he founded Alibaba. Today, the online retailer handles double the merchandise of Amazon. With September's IPO, Ma became China's richest person.
Elizabeth Holmes started her blood diagnostics company when she was 19. Now at 30, she's a billionaire.
Net worth: $4.5 billion
When Holmes was a 19-year-old sophomore at Stanford University back in 2003, she started Theranos, a blood diagnostics company that makes blood testing cheap.
The Palo Alto startup has 500 employees, a reported $400 million in funding, and a $9 billion evaluation.
Holmes has always been precocious — she taught herself Mandarin in her spare time when she was growing up in Houston. She was filing patents before getting to Stanford. And now she's worth billions
Ingvar Kamprad was raised on a farm in Sweden before founding IKEA.
Net worth: $3.9 billion
When Kamprad was a 7-year-old boy growing up in rural 1920s Sweden, he sold matches to his neighbors.
He soon moved up to pencils, greeting cards, and Christmas ornaments. At 17, he founded a company called IKEA, short for Ingvar Kamprad from Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd, named for his hometown. At 21, he started selling furniture — and the IKEA empire had begun.
Today, the manufacturer has over 340 stores in 42 countries, $36 billion in annual sales, and the New Yorker has called the company the "invisible designer of domestic life."
Yet Kamprad remains frugal — the 88 year old refuses to fly anything other than economy class.
Starbucks' Howard Schultz grew up in a housing complex for the poor.
Net worth: $2.1 billion
In an interview with British tabloid Mirror, Schultz says: "Growing up I always felt like I was living on the other side of the tracks. I knew the people on the other side had more resources, more money, happier families. And for some reason, I don’t know why or how, I wanted to climb over that fence and achieve something beyond what people were saying was possible. I may have a suit and tie on now but I know where I’m from and I know what it’s like."
Schultz ended up winning a football scholarship to the University of Northern Michigan and went to work for Xerox after graduation. Shortly after, he took over a coffee shop called Starbucks, which at the time had only 60 shops. Schultz became the company's CEO in 1987 and grew the coffee chain to more than 16,000 outlets worldwide.
Born into poverty, Oprah Winfrey became the first African American TV correspondent in Nashville.
Net worth: $3 billion
Winfrey was born into a poor family in Mississippi, but this didn't stop her from winning a scholarship to Tennessee State University and becoming the first African American TV correspondent in the state at the age of 19.
In 1983, Winfrey moved to Chicago to work for an AM talk show, which would later be called "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
At one time, businessman Shahid Khan washed dishes for $1.20 an hour.
Net worth: $4.4 billion
He's now one of the richest people in the world, but when Khan came to the US from Pakistan, he worked as a dishwasher while attending the University of Illinois. Khan now owns Flex-N-Gate, one of the largest private companies in the US; the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars; and Premier League soccer club Fulham.
John Paul DeJoria, the man behind a hair-care empire and Patron Tequila, once lived in a foster home and his car.
Net worth: $3.2 billion
Before the age of 10, DeJoria, a first generation American, sold Christmas cards and newspapers to help support his family. He was eventually sent to live in a foster home and even spent some time in a gang before joining the military.
With a $700 dollar loan, DeJoria created John Paul Mitchell Systems and sold the shampoo door-to-door while living in his car. He later started Patron Tequila, and now invests in other industries.
Forever 21 cofounder Do Won Chang worked as a janitor, gas station attendant, and in a coffee shop when he first moved to America.
Net worth: $5.2 billion
The husband-and-wife team — Do Won Chang and Jin Sook — behind Forever 21 didn't always have it so easy. After moving to America from Korea in 1981, Do Won had to work three jobs at the same time to make ends meet. They opened their first clothing store in 1984.
Forever 21 is now an international, 480-store empire that rakes in around $3 billion in sales a year.
Ralph Lauren was once a clerk at Brooks Brothers dreaming of men's ties.
Net worth: $7.8 billion
Lauren graduated high school in the Bronx, N.Y., but later dropped out of college to join the Army. It was while working as a clerk at Brooks Brothers that Lauren questioned whether men were ready for wider and brighter designs in ties. The year he decided to make his dream a reality, 1967, Lauren sold $500,000 worth of ties. He started Polo the next year.
Leonardo Del Vecchio grew up in an orphanage and later worked in a factory where he lost part of his finger.
Net worth: $18.4 billion
Del Vecchio, who founded Luxottica in 1961, was one of five children who was eventually sent to an orphanage because his widow mother couldn't care for him. He would later work in a factory making molds of auto parts and eyeglass frames.
At the age of 23, Del Vecchio opened his own molding shop, which expanded to become the world's largest maker of sunglasses and prescription eyewear with brands like Ray-Ban and Oakley.
Legendary trader George Soros survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary and arrived in London as an impoverished college student.
Net worth: $24 billion
In his early teens, Soros posed as the godson of an employee of the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture in order to stay safe from the Nazi occupation of Hungary. In 1947, Soros escaped the country to live with his relatives in London. He put himself through the London School of Economics working as a waiter and railway porter.
After graduating, Soros worked at a souvenir shop before getting a job as a banker in New York City. In 1992, his famous bet against the British pound made him a billion dollars.
Oracle's Larry Ellison dropped out of college after his adoptive mother died and held odd jobs for eight years.
Net worth: $48 billion
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to a single mother, Ellison was raised by his aunt and uncle in Chicago. After his aunt died, Ellison dropped out of college and moved to California to work odd jobs for the next eight years. He founded software development company Oracle in 1977, which is now one of the largest technology companies in the world.
Now he's stepped away from his CEO responsibility — but continues to lead a fabulous life.
Roman Abramovich was orphaned as a child. Now the Russian tycoon owns the Chelsea football club.
Net worth:$9.5 billion
Abramovich was born in 1966 in Saratov, Russia. His mother died when he was 18 months old. His father died when he was four.
Orphaned, he was taken in by his uncle in Moscow and his grandparents in the northern province of Komi.
He went to Russia's Industrial Institute for college and then started trading oil products in western Siberia.
The Guardian reports that his "big break" came in 1992 when he caught the favor of Boris Berezovsky, one of Russia's premier tycoons as the country moved into capitalism.
Berezovsky fled to the UK after fraud charges. Abramovich took the reins of his empire, accumulating "80% of Sibneft, Russia's fifth-largest oil company; 50% of Rusal, the Russian aluminium oil monopoly; and 26% of Aeroflot, Russia's national airline," the Guardian reports. Then he got into private investments.
Today, Abramovich is one of Russia's richest people, and he has toys like the world's largest yacht, a Boeing 767, and the Chelsea Football Club.
Bonus: his daughter has an Instagram that shows what it's like to be an heiress.
The world has added more than a billion mobile phone subscribers in the last four years alone, with the total number reaching 3.2 billion, almost half the earth's population, organisers of an industry event here said. 
