Gartner predicts that when users around the world want to communicate or consume content, more than half will go to a mobile device such as a tablet or smartphone by 2018.

According to Gartner’s research vice president Van Baker, the smartphone is the first choice of device when users are on the go, followed by the tablet that is used for longer sessions, with the PC “increasingly reserved for more-complex tasks.”

Baker believes that this behaviour will adapt to incorporate wearables: “As voice, gesture and other modalities grow in popularity with consumers, and as content consumption tasks outweigh content creation tasks, this will further move users away from the PC,” he said.

The study reveals that in emerging economies, users are adopting smartphones as their exclusive mobile devices while in developed economies, multi-device households are becoming the norm, with tablets growing at the fastest rate of any computing device.

By 2018, Gartner expects the ASP for a basic and a utility phone to be $78 and $25, respectively. Some low-cost smartphone prices are expected to reach approximately $35 without subsidy by year-end 2014, down from $50 in 2013. As Chinese brands rapidly grow, tier one smartphone vendors will come under pressure, according to the report.

The falling cost of smartphones has already meant that mobile is now the most popular way users access the internet in China, where online shopping via mobile devices is gaining traction.

The report also notes that the premium smartphone category has reached saturation levels as demand is mainly driven by replacement users and has begun to slow down.

In developing markets, this could be because the enhanced features of such phones have less mainstream value to most buyers.

The report points out that as mobile phones become a common method for making payments, subsidies and sponsorships for them may increase, thereby lowering prices.