by Paul Gibson
Home >> More Mobile Than Ever
Andy Reinhardt, Head of Marketing for market researcher Informa Telecoms & Media , forecasts a healthy 4 billion mobile subscriptions around the world, coming off a jump to 3 billion – a milestone reached a little over a year. That figure is expected to reach a startling 576.3 million subscriptions by year-end in Western Europe alone.
Until now, the major source of revenue has originated from emerging markets, with China heading the pack with over 53.6 million additional subscriptions alone this year. Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan, Brazil, Iran, Russia and Nigeria have all registered over 10 million new subscriptions each. The most rapidly developing region as far as mobile service is concerned is expected to be the Middle East, with a healthy 37.33% growth rate in subscriptions.
The prospect of present growth in subscriptions overshadows the future challenges most operators will face in the near future, however. Markets face fierce saturation, and we can expect mobile competition to appear in the form of price wars and special package offers that will dazzle even the most old-fashioned consumers. The winners seem to be the handset makers who will continue to benefit from increasing demand for better, more sophisticated handsets to impress markets.
As the EU Commission moves to impose a measure to lower roaming charges among EU member countries (by almost 60%), mobile operators need to focus their efforts on new ways to boost revenue via data transmission and / or mobile video services. The most optimistic projections see growth in revenue coming from these sales to outpace subscription growth in the next five years.
Regions such as Africa, Latin America and Asia (especially the Asia Pacific Region) will undoubtedly take center stage, as the number of future subscriptions could reach astronomical figures (over 500 million in the first two regions and a startling 2.5 billion estimated subscriptions for Asia.).
Unlike these growing markets, penetration rates in North America, especially in the U.S. and Canada will expect to slow due to the economic slowdown, but there seems to be more than enough room for mobile operators to see their services expand in the next decade or so, with no immediate end to the flow of good returns and profits in sight. The future of the mobile industry is looking brighter every day!
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Posted on http://www.weeklyletter.com at 2008-09-30 09:30:00 +0200
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More mobiles…more calls…more conversations…but what on earth are people actually saying now that they didn’t or couldn’t before?
That is a very deep and profound question on the effect of mobile communications on our daily lives, Jeremy.
What are we saying now? – In emergencies, we are hearing the voice of the victim or patient in need. In school, we are exchanging text messages with other students during class. At work we are playing with our mobile phones at lunchtime to catch up on the latest news or to send videos to our loved ones. Maybe the content of our conversations may not have changed all that much, but the way we are communicating these same ideas and messages has.
Some liken the advent of mobile internet to the advent of Internet itself. We are now hearing about all that news about ocurrences that surely took place in yester year, but that in our modern times are just now being addressed.
In any event, I like to remember the words of my dear loving Mum: “If you don’t have anything good to say, then don’t say it!” That’s my motto. Cheers Jezremy, and thanks again for your astute reflections….
Paul