Ericsson chief executive officer Hans Vestberg (pictured middle) says that if the average price of smartphones came down by $10 some 100 million more people could have access to these devices.

Vestberg was speaking at a briefing at the 2014 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain on Monday morning where he said one billion smartphones were shipped in 2013.

Last year an Ericsson ConsumerLab report said that smartphones as cheap as $50 could help bridge sub-Saharan Africa’s digital divide.

In African countries such as South Africa, smartphone usage has been growing but is smaller than feature phone adoption.

South African mobile operator Vodacom, for example, reported earlier this month that the number of smartphones on its network has grown by 600,000 to reach 7.2 million in South Africa. Vodacom South Africa; though, has over 20 million subscribers.

Nevertheless, the Ericsson CEO says his company also expects mobile broadband subscriptions to reach eight billion worldwide in five years time.

“The early days of the networked society are here. We use our smartphones to work, live, and entertain ourselves in more powerful ways every day. That demands networks that provide superior performance, and our leadership across generations of technology - from fixed to wireless to LTE-Advanced and, in the future, 5G - contributes to our ability to deliver that to our customers," said Vestberg.

Vestberg added that when he spoke at MWC back in 2010 there were just half a billion mobile broadband subscriptions in the world.

In just over three years that number has now more than doubled and is expected to reach eight billion by the year 2019.

And in 2014, Ericsson has predicted that 50% of subscriptions will be smartphones.

Despite the predictions in the growth of mobile broadband subscriptions and smartphone adoption Vestberg still believes that the "change of pace is still slow".

The Ericsson CEO also said the company is launching new products and partnerships for networks that include a cloud offering, software services, and the launch of the company's TV anywhere platform (a partnership initiative with broadcast TV stations and cable operators).

(Photo taken by Simnikiwe Mzekandaba.)