We all know that mobile applications and smartphones have become some of the most popular technologies of the 21st century. Everyone wants to be able to carry little pocket-sized devices that give us all sorts of information in the blink of an eye. 

Despite the popularity we know exists for these devices, a new study illustrates that our fixation on mobile phones is turning from simple popularity into obsession. Industry analyst Chetan Sharma (News - Alert) has come up with a graph that illustrates that mobile phone ownership is now outpacing those who have electricity or clean drinking water.

We probably already knew that mobile phone users had long left land line phone users in the dust, but the sheer number by which mobile subscribers outnumber land line users is a bit eyepopping.

According to Sharma, there are now six billion mobile phone subscribers in the world. That means that roughly 80 percent of the world now owns some form of mobile phone. In contrast, just over 1.5 billion people (just over 10 percent) currently have a landline.

Those six billion mobile phone users are such a powerful market these days, that they greatly outnumber those who own a television or have a credit card (both categories have just under two billion users). It appears that the explosion of the smartphone, and all that can be done with it, has allowed people to cut the internet cord as well, as those who own a personal computer also comes in well under two billion worldwide. 

Of course, the really impressive numbers are when you compare the number of people who currently own a mobile phone to those who have what most would consider basic needs.

Those who have electricity are not trailing the number of people with a mobile phone by as much, but they still come in under the six billion mark. We have to assume this means that at least some people are actively choosing a mobile phone over things like clean water and adequate power. That's either impressive or terrifying, depending on how you look at it.