Video will account for bulk of mobile data in four years, Cisco says

Cisco has been saying for years that mobile video data traffic content is exploding, and it now expects the amount of video traffic in 2014 to be 66% of all mobile data traffic by 2014. That prediction came in a new forecast by the networking company.

The findings, which represent a summary of independent analysts' forecasts and real-world data usage studies, predict there will be more than five billion personal devices running on mobile networks in four years Those figures include many devices that are just now emerging like the Apple iPad -- devices that are expected to rely heavily on video data. Smartphones and laptop air cards will drive 90 % of the global mobile traffic by 2014, Cisco said.

The Cisco forecast says that the amount of mobile video alone will have grown 66-fold between 2009 and 2014.

All kinds of mobile data will soar to 3.6 exabytes per month, representing an annual growth rate of 108% in the five years between 2009 and 2014.

According to Cisco, the average mobile broadband connection today generates 1.3GB a month, the equivalent of about 650 MP3 music files. By 2014, the average mobile connection will generate 7GB per month, equal to about 3,500 MP3 music files.