Smartphones may be shaping the future of digital lifestyles, but they are still outnumbered by less sophisticated internet capable handsets in Asia-Pacific.

While one billion smartphones were in use across the region in 2014 (as well as 571 million PCs), 2.4 billion feature phones accessed the internet in APAC last year, according to the latest numbers from Cisco.

That said, Cisco anticipates another 1.3 billion connected smartphones appearing in the region between 2014 and 2019, bringing the total to 2.3 billion.

At the same time, Cisco forecasts the number of internet-capable feature phones to decline by 700 million, to reach 1.7 billion region-wide by 2019.

The number of PCs, meanwhile, will remain fairly static, dropping by about 14 million (a -0.5% CAGR) over the same time-frame.

Not just smartphones

Other screens will become more common. Cisco projects the number of connected tablets in APAC to rise from 144.3 million in 2014 to 260.9 million by 2019, displaced by large-screen smartphones.

Connected TVs, on the other hand, will be a more familiar sight, accounting for 1.2 billion networked devices across APAC in 2019 (up from 577.1 million in 2014).

This group includes TVs connected to IP set-top boxes and streaming devices, as well as smart TVs with in-built connectivity.

Volume measures only one part of online penetration.

Smartphones encourage more time online than internet-capable feature phones, for example.

They also consume a lot more data, much of it video.

More sophisticated gateways to the internet are appearing in more places, fostering – amongst other things – more ways to watch TV, while escalating demand for bandwidth.

Our slideshow highlights projections for connected screens across key markets in Asia-Pacific.