It wasn’t that long ago that smartphones were a niche product. They were bought almost exclusively by nerds and nerdy businesspeople. But that time is long gone. In Verizon’s most recent financial earnings report, the telecommunications giant touts that 70% of the devices on its retail postpaid network are smartphones. Verizon also reports that at the end of 2013, there were 96.8 million retail postpaid connections after the company added 1.6 million new connections. That works out to 67.76 million smartphones on Verizon’s network alone. In the summer of 2012, smartphones crossed the 50% penetration mark on Verizon’s network. At that time, just before the launch of the iPhone 5, feature phones were quickly going out of vogue while at the same time, smartphones were dropping in price.
