Indian mobile market to grow 11 percent in numbers and 8 percent in revenues in 2013

The analyst firm, Gartner, has published its new report on the Indian mobileservices market. The highlights of the report are –

·     Indian mobile service market is expected to reach Rs.1.2 trillion (US$22.8 billion) in 2013, up 8 percent from 2012.

·         The mobile connections in India will grow to 770 million in 2013, an 11 percent increase from 712 million connections in 2012.

·         The mobile market in India will continue to face challenges if average revenue per unit (ARPU) does not grow significantly. India will account for 12 percent worldwide mobile connections, but just 2 percent of worldwide mobile services revenue (in constant USD) in 2013.

·    Two major challenges that India Telcos will face in near future - growing their profit margin in the face of intense competition and successfully competing with over the top service providers, such as Facebook and WhatsApp.

·      With the increased use of voice over IP (VoIP) and the probable termination of national roaming charges, mobile broadband is the area of opportunity for operators. Smaller mobile broadband plans using a sachet-style usage pattern appeal to Indian consumers.

·         Further rural expansion of mobile services will come at a cost.

·  In India, innovation in utility apps that help bring efficiencies in a consumer's life will bring in sustained revenue and will be relatively more difficult to replicate by new entrants.

·       While social and video apps are doing extremely well in India, it is time to look beyond these and deliver apps that can have a sustained business model. Operators need to insert themselves into the value chain of these new apps and services.

Is WiMAX out of 4G race ?

I found the recent reports on HSPA and WiMAX users data very interesting. Does the reports indicate that the WiMAX is out of 4G race ? Pl go thru -

As per the GSM Association reports - The number of live HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) connections will pass 150 million globally this summer, while according to a report published by Marvedis this week WiMAX has just 3.5 million users. This puts HSPA firmly ahead of other mobile broadband technologies.


As per Wireless Intelligence reports , EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) have 49.5 million HSPA users currently and almost 60 million predicted by the end of the summer. Asia-Pacific is a close second at 47.7 million subscribers and by the end of September will have over 56 million. The U.S. trails significantly, with about 32 million HSPA connections growing to perhaps 37 million by September, while the rest of the Americas will hit just over four million subscribers in the same time frame.

Why HSPA may be a prefered choice to operators -
HSPA is an attractive option for mobile operators as the technology allows operators to upgrade their existing 3G networks, often by simply upgrading the software. This gives HSPA a leg up over WiMAX, which requires new network infrastructure. Further, its performance rates are attractive, as well. HSPA download rates range from 3.6 Mbps to 14.4 Mbps, and a handful of operators are beginning to roll out 21 Mbps using HSPA+.

The GSMA reports that there are more than 300 upgraded networks across 127 countries. More than 1500 HSPA-enabled devices are on the market. Its rapid adoption — faster even than SMS — has led the organization to embrace HSPA as the dominant mobile broadband technology.

The report expects growth to continue at a rapid pace, predicting 200 million connections by the first quarter of 2010.

More than 500 million mobile financial services users expected by 2013 !

­The number of mobile phone subscribers that use their phones for mobile banking transactions will exceed 150m globally by 2011, according to a new study by Juniper Research. These figures refer to additive banking which is focused on developed markets rather than transformational banking. Additive banking in this context adds further choices or distribution channels for banks to serve their customers or make the banking experience more convenient for existing customers.

The Juniper Research report determined that the mobile banking market is currently most advanced in the Far East, but that growing numbers of mobile banking services are being offered in North America and Western Europe. The developed nations of the Far East, North America and Western Europe are forecast to account for over 70% of the user base by 2011.

Transactional or "push" mobile banking is being offered increasingly by banks via downloadable applications or the mobile web, complementing existing SMS messaging services for balance and simple information enquiries. Mobile banking is a key element in banks' distribution channel strategies as they compete to attract and retain customers. The Juniper report highlighted the extra user convenience as a key benefit. The mobile phone is the device that people - especially Generation Y - will not leave home without. Mobile banking is an addition to the wide choice of applications and services that they can access through their handsets to make life easier, especially via smart phones such as the iPhone.

However the report identified several factors that will need addressing to really foster market development including financial regulations which vary from country to country, application slickness, and security. Whatever the reality of the strength of the security, it is the perception and image in the mind of the user that dictates whether they will trust the service.

­Mobile technology market-watchers are always on the lookout for the next “killer app,” and according to ABI Research, mobile financial services are very likely to become the “next big thing” that will attract many millions of consumers.

“Mobile financial services have the potential to be bigger than mobile TV and premium mobile content in terms of numbers of subscribers,” says senior analyst Mark Beccue. “They have the broadest demographic appeal: almost anybody over the age of 18 is a potential user.”

Mobile financial services are of three kinds: mobile banking (essentially a mobile form of today’s online banking), mobile domestic person-to-person payments, and international person-to-person payments.

While mobile banking services are likely to find their greatest market in the industrialized world, mobile domestic and international person-to-person payments may be game-changing developments in less prosperous regions, enabling commerce, extending services to rural regions, and possibly even helping people previously excluded from the financial system to lift themselves out of poverty.

The major promoters of this market, will be banking institutions. It allows banks to increase customer ‘stickiness,’ to cut costs and automate, and most importantly, to reach the unbanked. They are scrambling for ways to do it. Moreover this market is largely recession-proof because with few exceptions it’s not about consumers spending their money, but managing it.

When it comes to mobile banking, Bank of America has been a leader. It launched its mobile banking services in May 2007 and by June of the following year already had a million mobile banking customers. Currently the service covers about 1.5 million subscribers.

SMS will continue to be the cash cow of mobile data revenues

A new report from Portio Research focused on mobile messaging suggests that SMS will continue to be the cash cow of mobile data revenues for some time to come. The whole mobile messaging industry worth USD 130 billion in 2008 is predicted to be worth USD 224 billion by 2013, 60 percent of non-voice service revenues. The report, ‘Mobile Messaging Futures 2008 – 2013’ ventures that there is nothing likely to stop continued growth of mobile messaging in the short term, driven by a cocktail of ubiquitous SMS, media rich MMS, enterprise based mobile email and youth conscious mobile IM.

SMS remains ‘King’ because there is no cheap, easy to use alternative that will work with all phones and across all networks, it is loved the world over. Indeed in the US market, where SMS was a comparative slow starter, use per subscriber per month is now almost double the European average. In China average users send over 100 messages each month whereas the Filipinos continue to be the leading exponents with 755 messages each month.

Portio also predict a bright future for mobile email even though Japan is the only market where consumer mobile e-mail has surpassed the use of SMS. Email is still the most popular form of business communication and the report suggests that mobile e-mail users worldwide will quadruple from approximately a quarter of a billion users in 2008 to over a billion users by the end of 2013.

The rising star in the mobile messaging constellation is mobile instant messaging (MIM), which is still beset by the technical problems of interoperability. Portio however predict exponential growth in mobile IM users, surging from a worldwide total of 111 million users in 2008 to hit a massive 867 million users by the close of 2013. This massive growth in users will be accompanied by an equally impressive 5-fold increase in revenues from approximately USD 2.5 billion in 2008 to approximately USD 12.4 billion in 2013.

Since MMS hit the mainstream in 2004 the press and analysts have been critical about its level of success. Back then, they wanted to MMS reach the same value as SMS, USD $30bn, for it be considered a success; finally in 2009 this will be a reality. MMS is growing fast and certain countries, such as China and the United States, are becoming very big markets. Worldwide MMS traffic of 75 billion messages in 2008 is impressive, and the future growth looks very good in Asia, as affordable camera-equipped handsets flood the market with China leading the way.

More than 5 billion mobile subscribers worldwide by 2013 !

According to Informa Telecoms & Media, by 2013 the number of subscriptions worldwide will have risen to more than 5.3 billion and annual revenues from the global mobile market will top USD 1.03 trillion. From end-2007 to end-2013, the global mobile market will see huge growth, increasing in size by over half (56%), according to the latest edition of Informa Telecoms & Media’s Global Mobile Forecasts to 2013.

It took over 20 years to reach 3 billion subscriptions, but another 1.9 billion net additions are forecast in just six years, with the global total nudging past the 5-billion milestone in 2011. With this extraordinary growth, total annual revenues derived from mobile operators will grow by over a third (33.9%), jumping from USD 769 billion in 2007 to USD 1.03 trillion six years later.

Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts more than three quarters (78%) of global net additions between 2007 and 2013 to come from markets in Asia Pacific, Africa and Latin America, which will be the powerhouses of organic growth over the next five years. Astonishingly, nearly half (47%) of the 1.9 billion global net adds will come from just five markets – India, China, Indonesia, Brazil and Russia. By contrast, the mature markets of North America and Western Europe will in total contribute just 8% of global net adds, reflecting the high level of saturation in these markets.

Globally, subscription penetration will approach the 75% mark in 2013, while some countries will push past the 150% barrier – Romania (152%), Russia (153%), Italy (168%), Ukraine (173%) and Greece (183%). Growth in subscriptions (the number of SIMs) will outstrip growth in subscribers (the number of unique users), pointing to greater multi-SIM ownership. The global ratio of subscriptions to subscribers will increase from 1.29 in 2007 to 1.32 in 2013. In Western Europe, the ratio will reach 1.55 in 2013, and even higher (1.75) in Eastern Europe.

As the global subscription base expands, total annual revenues will increase to over USD 1 trillion in 2012. Voice revenues will continue to make up the lion’s share of total revenues, but will see slowing growth, and even a decline from 2010 onwards. With regulators worldwide looking to promote competition, forcing operators to push down voice tariffs, Informa Telecoms & Media expects voice revenues to peak as soon as 2009 in Western Europe, and even by end-2008 in North America. In more developing markets such as the Middle East and Asia Pacific, voice revenues will not peak until 2011, and 2012 in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Operators globally will be challenged to generate sustainable revenues as average revenue per user (ARPU) continues to drop. To keep annual revenues on the up, operators will need to promote usage of data services. Annual data revenues, unlike voice revenues, will go from strength to strength, and will more than double from USD 148 billion in 2007 to USD 347 billion in 2013. As a result, the proportion of total revenues generated by data services will increase from less than a fifth (19.2%) in 2007 to over a third (33.7%) at the end of the forecast period.

With voice revenue streams diminishing, industry players will encourage data spend among subscribers by innovating in non-voice services and differentiating their data service offerings from those of their competitors. While 2G will remain the dominant technology generation by subscription numbers until 2013, its market share will fall from over two thirds (66.9%) in 2007 to less than one third (32.7%) in 2013, as 3G+ technologies continue to gain ground. 3.5G technologies accounted for just 1.2% of total subscriptions in 2007, but will represent nearly a quarter (22.9%) of the global subscription base by 2013 and exceed the number of 3G subscriptions.

Future growth trends in mobile industry - Greener pastures ahead !!

During last few months I have come accross several reports on future growth projections on mobile industry. Some of this data have already been posted on my blog. I thoought it was a good idea to compile some of these projections at a single place so that the readers can conviniently co-relate them. The various sources from where these projctions have been taken are also quoted below.

Mobile advertising worth $14 billion in 4yrs (2011)


Predictions and suppositions on the future evolution of mobile advertising have been going by for some time now. The latest comes from a Strategy Analytics report and says that advertisers hope on reaching more than USD14 Billion by 2011.Still, just recently, debates have emphasized the fact that mobile advertising is considered by many companies as being rather risky and less profitable than the TV alternative. This comes from the fact that the video content they use is still in a primary state and there is room for a great amount of improvement. One thing that might attract companies as to choose mobile phones for placing their advertisements is exactly the fact that this environment is yet little used. This means that it proves to be considerably easier for an announcement to stand out and be fully received by the handset users when there are no other adverts around to distract him from this specific one. The outlook for mobile advertising spend has significantly advanced in the past 12 months. The supply of advertising inventory is rapidly increasing as mobile publishers look to develop advertising as a revenue stream. Major mobile network operators like SprintNextel, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone have all accelerated plans to sell advertising within their mobile media channels and advertisers appear to be responding positively. The Strategy Analytics report also regards game downloads, mobile broadcasting and video on demand, all used as spaces for mobile advertising. Even more, several advertising companies have teamed up with mobile software and service providers in order to better develop means of reaching high profit rates.

Mobile apps worth $66 billion over 5 years


The transformation of variousenterprise applications from fixed to mobile access technology will generate more than $66 billion in carrier service revenue over the nextfive years, says a new market research report from Insight Research Corp.By the close of 2007, service revenues generated by mobile applicationstraversing wired and wireless networks in the US will reach just over $9billion; by 2012, the value of services revenue supporting thoseapplications is forecasted to grow to nearly $13 billion, according to thenew market study. Insight's newly released market analysis report, "The Mobile Workforceand Enterprise Applications 2007-2012," states that telecommunicationsindustry consolidation and job growth in the services sector are bothspeeding a transformation of various enterprise applications to a mobilityenvironment. Citing Bureau of Labor statistics, the study finds thatoccupations working outside of corporate offices are increasing at a muchfaster rate than average employment growth. At the same time, consolidationwithin the telecommunications industry has put all of the requisite pieceparts required to deliver integrated wireless applications within the handsof the remaining companies. "Analyze AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon and you will find that each companynow commands the local, metro, long-haul, and wireless assets required todeliver an end-to-end corporate solution," says Robert Rosenberg, Presidentof Insight. "Equally as important is the fact that these companies areshifting capital expenditures from infrastructure to service control,managed services, and applications. This shift in resource allocations willbenefit enterprises looking to mobilize their traditional applications, soin the months ahead we see a real rush to develop mobile applications,"Rosenberg concludes.

Mobile games worth 11.2 billion by 2010


Total global revenues from mobile games are forecast to increase from USD 2.6 billion (2005) to USD 11.2 billion by 2010, according to Mobile Games, a new strategic research report from Informa Telecoms and Media.
Downloads will account for around two-thirds of total global revenues through 2010, but online multiplayer traffic will start to generate significant income for mobile operators, as cellcos launch more multiplayer games and introduce community features that will encourage user uptake. By 2010, online multiplayer games will generate 20.5 percent of total global revenues.
"The Asia-Pacific and Europe will continue to dominate the global mobile gaming market in terms of revenues and users," says Pamela Clark-Dickson, co-author of the report, and editor of continuous research service Mobile Games Analyst, published by Informa Telecoms and Media. "However the U.S. is set to become the second largest individual market by revenues and users, behind Japan and China respectively, by 2010."
Meanwhile the mobile games industry still has work to do to encourage mass-market adoption of mobile games. This year, just 6.7 percent of all mobile subscribers globally will download and play a mobile game, rising to 15.2 percent by 2010.
"The cellcos' strategy of targeting hardcore gamers was the right thing to do when the market was in its early adopter phase," says Stuart Dredge, co-author of Mobile Games and reporter at Mobile Games Analyst. "But now what the market needs is mass-market take-up, which means that the mobile games industry has to provide games that will encourage more casual users to play."
Merger and acquisition activity is thinning out the mobile games market, especially in the games development and publishing sectors. The race is on to acquire the smaller mobile games companies whose survival to date has relied on the production and distribution of good quality games based on desirable licenses, but which haven't been able to scale their operations.
"Previously consolidation occurred mainly among mobile games companies but recent acquisitions and investments by vendors such as RealNetworks and Cisco Systems attest to a growing interest in this sector from the wider digital media and information technology industry," says Clark-Dickson.
Mobile games companies will also likely embark on brand-building and consumer marketing activities during 2005, as they launch their own direct-to-consumer offerings, and seek to build the profile of mobile gaming in the marketplace.
While the cellcos' decks will continue to be the primary source of games for mobile users, games companies have also started distributing their titles through third-party content portals and through bricks-and-mortar retailers.
"Multimedia memory cards will become an increasingly important games delivery mechanism at retail, particularly for 3D and feature-rich 2D titles," says Dredge. MMCs will contribute 9.1 percent of total global revenues for mobile games by 2010.



Mobile entertainment worth $76 billion by 2011


The mobile entertainment industry, if actualized, could reach a potential of $76 billion by the year 2011, a recent study conducted by technology market analysts Juniper Research claims. Made up of music, games, TV, and sports, the entertainment business via mobile phones has a set stage for an explosion of mobile entertainment in the coming years.

“The face of mobile entertainment is expected to change significantly over the next five years as next generation mobile services continue to be rolled out around the globe and take up steadily increases,” said Juniper Research Mobile Entertainment principal author Bruce Gibson in a company press release.

This mobile entertainment industry could reach the $76 billion mark, up from $17.3 billion in 2006. One of the main reasons for the potential boom is the current wave of third generation networks, which offer the bandwith to support mobile entertainment . Other factors include the rise of mobile video feeds and live mobile TV. Supplemented by a growing market in Asia, the mobile entertainment industry could grow along with it.

Juniper Research warns opening up a Pandora’s box for perturbed mobile users. The possibility for the monetization may be eclipsed by possible pitfalls such as gambling or pornography. These two factors alone could impinge on the successes of this untapped market.

“Whilst the potential to generate dramatically increased revenues is certainly there, many uncertainties affecting sections of the market still exist and could put a break on growth – the development of legislative environments for mobile gambling and adult content, and the success of broadcast mobile TV trails currently underway or planned, are just two examples,” said Gibson.

Mobile social networks worth $13.1 billion by 2011

Red Herring (04.16.07) reported that according to London-based Informa Telecon and Media mobile communities and user generated content (often bracketed together as social networking) will be worth $13.1 billion by 2011.

Mobile content to reach $43 billion by 2010


The global market for mobile phone premium content will exceed US$43 billion by 2010, according to a new study by iSuppli. This compares to the figure in 2004 which barely reached US$5.2 billion. Over the next four years, the market for such extra mobile services as music, gaming and video will expand at an annual rate of 42% argues the US-based research company.
According to Mark Kirstein, vice president of multimedia services and content for iSuppli, "After years of hyper growth, mobile phone markets in several major regions around the world are maturing, resulting in slower subscriber growth and declining average revenue per user for carriers. Meanwhile, new 3G networks offer increased bandwidth, but require compelling applications and content to drive revenue and provide a return on investment to operators. Against this backdrop, mobile-service carriers and content providers are establishing new business models to capture the growing opportunity."
The company believes that the main driver of premium mobile content services will be music, led by ring tones and ring tunes. iSuppli believes that this market alone was worth US$3.8 billion in 2004 and grew very quickly last year as the industry made a major transition from traditional polyphonic ring tones to ring tunes. Coming a close second in terms of growing popularity is mobile gaming, which the company believes grew by 80% in revenue terms last year. However, mobile video is seen as the best long term bet for expanding premium content services, even though the market for such services is still in its infancy.
The company argues that the success of mobile TV depends entirely on new phone deployments. According to iSuppli even with reasonably strong adoption of mobile-TV technology and subscribers, the installed base of TV-capable phones will only represent 12% of the total by 2010.

Braodband satellite industry revenues to increase at an average annual rate of 11 percent during next five years !!

According to Northern Sky Research Ltd. (NSR), service revenue for the broadband satellite industry will increase on a global basis at an average annual rate of more than 11 percent during the next five years, with the fastest growth coming for consumer-class satellite broadband Internet access services like North America's WildBlue and HughesNet.
Broadband satellite Internet services and satellite IP trunking are experiencing rapid subscriber growth, which in turn translates into greater service revenue. In addition, single-site satellite broadband services have had success in markets outside of North America, like Thailand and Australia, and new service launches in Europe and possibly elsewhere in the world will help to generate service revenue growth in excess of 22 percent per year through 2011.
Service revenue from the IP trunking segment actually will decline on a global basis as demand for trunking continues to shift from satellite to undersea cable and fiber, the group says, though some regional markets like Africa will see positive gains in the coming years as demand continues to grow in specific countries.
Solid, steady growth in classic enterprise & SME broadband VSAT services along with continued growth in shared-hub and managed services in most regions of the world will enable service revenue to increase at a steady rate through 2011. In addition, increasingly fat bandwidth pipes for existing broadband VSAT networks will increase service revenues as companies take advantage of standardization to carry on adding additional IP-based applications to their enterprise networks.
Turning to customer premise equipment (CPE) sales, total CPE revenue for the entire market are forecast to remain in the $400 million-$500 million range per year through 2011. The declining CPE cost will be one of the key factors in driving up subscriber uptake for single site satellite broadband Internet access services and will push growth in the enterprise & SME broadband VSAT networking segment as well.
Another trend in the enterprise & SME segment is that better performance is being obtained in CPEs of lower or the same price. This is especially true as bandwidth-saving technologies like DVB-S2 and Adaptive Coding & Modulation are adopted and ever-smaller broadband VSAT networks become financially viable.
The majority of CPE revenues are generated in the enterprise & SME broadband VSAT networking segment. "Interestingly, NSR even forecasts CPE revenues to decline substantially in a number of regional markets. Again, this is a positive sign that does not point to slowing demand for services but a lowering of one of the important cost barriers to broadband satellite services uptake" - as per the report.

Mobile handset accessories will generate $80 billions of revenues by 2012!!

According to ABI Research - The market for mobile-phone accessories will generate more than $32 billion in revenues this year, more than the $28 billion expected from the smartphone market.
Some 77 percent of these revenues will come from the sales of "after-market" accessories and the remaining from "in-box" accessories shipments. The firm expects the market for handset accessories to grow steadily in the next five years, generating more than $80 billion in revenues in 2012.
Handset vendors and mobile operators are showing greater interest as accessories provide high margins and also opportunities to promote their brand and expand their product offerings. The growing interest among mobile operators is also driven by the realization that mobile phone accessories can lead to higher ARPUs.
Handset vendors now recognize that to increase sales of their high-end wireless handsets and smartphones, they need to provide accessories that allow users to fully enjoy and benefit from the features provided in those handsets. Nokia is addressing the handset accessory market with a distinctive approach of "mobile enhancement" products, while
Motorola is playing special emphasis on the growing "personalization" and "self-expression" trends.

MVNOs are here to stay and grow

A new report published by BroadGroup Tariff Services suggests that MVNOs will continue to grow on a global basis ? with worldwide subscriber numbers more than doubling for the period from 2007 to 2012.

However the report warns that business models and distribution will need to change.
The research reveals a wide range of different approaches and market drivers. The mobile market globally is becoming more fragmented with the power of brands and distribution ? together with the emergence of new low-cost MVNE aggregators ? favouring the development of emerging niche MVNOs based on a small social community.
Retailers and non-telecoms companies with strong customer relationships are using the MVNO model as a marketing tool to broaden and improve their existing customer experience to improve customer retention for their core business.
The distinction between pure MVNO and pure MNO is likely to become increasingly difficult to sustain as the MNO is utilising the MVNO technique of sub-brands or multi-brands to retain loyal customers... As the larger MVNOs grow their subscriber base they also seek to develop a post-paid business stream and are adopting the characteristics of the MNO.
"The MVNO model is perceived as a perfect low cost entry vehicle to launch new mobile business models," commented Margrit Sessions, Managing Director of BroadGroup Tariff Services. "MVNOs can help lower prices in a market but purely competing on price can not be sustained as a long-term strategy. Developing new business models and distribution will be key to success".

VoIP revenues in North America to increase by 1431% by 2009 !

according to an Infonetics Research report , Voice-over-IP service revenues are poised for phenomenal growth in North America . That report predicts a growth rate of 1431% for VoIP service revenues, as they increase from $1.3 billion in 2004 to $19.9 billion in 2009.
That increase is predicted despite the fact that most businesses recently surveyed by Infonetics expect to provide their own VoIP, using a service provider pipe and premises-based VoIP gear.
VoIP revenues in 2004 represented less than 1% of total wireline carrier revenue.

Many service providers are still trying to figure out how to structure their hosted voice offerings, as well as how to bill for, manage and secure VoIP services. Particularly in courting business VoIP customers, service providers have to develop a mix of offerings that takes into account both hosted services and managed IP-PBX offerings. Service providers must be able to mix and manage customer premises solutions with hosting solutions even for one customer, since a business often has small offices that need a hosted solution, but also need the same feature set as the premises solution at corporate headquarters.
Service providers also are trying to sort out what falls into the flat-rate “all you can eat” category of voice service and what advanced features will generate badly needed revenue or create competitive differentiation.
Single office/home office (SOHO) users will be a major growth category for VoIP, the report predicts, growing from 1.1 million in 2004 to 20.8 million in 2008. Business-hosted VoIP service revenue is getting off to a slower start than that of managed IP-PBX services, but is expected to overtake those revenues by 2006 due to significant growth in the small to mid-sized market, according to Infonetics.

Future of content on mobile - Mobile TV will dominate !

The research house, Screen Digest has released a report which studies the impact three very different offerings of mobile content will have on key mobile markets by 2011.

1) Mobile gaming
The gaming market is currently worth €1.6bn, with 50% of that revenue based in South Korea and Japan, but market growth is slowing. By 2011 it will be worth €2bn ? increasing only incrementally in the next five years. Screen Digest mobile analyst David MacQueen believes that as operators shift focus onto music and TV services, the mobile games market will stall unless current business models change.

2) Mobile music
Screen Digest forecasts that the global over-the-air full track music download market will grow explosively over the next five years, reaching €1.47bn by 2011 ? an eight fold increase from 2006. One of the major contributing factors to this growth is going to be the availability of subscription services which offer more than just audio tracks. However, the majority of music on mobile phones will still be 'side loaded' from the PC. (Also see our story on digital music )

3) Mobile TV
As per the report, Mobile TV will put gaming and music in the shade.
It is the newest of all mobile content offerings ? TV ? that looks set to emerge as the strongest performer globally, delivering €4.7bn of revenue from 140 million subscribers by 2011. The new broadcast services, launched in only a handful of markets, are growing rapidly. For instance, Unicast services, delivered over existing 3G networks, have begun to generate real revenues in Europe.
While cynics doubt that consumers will be happy watching TV on such a small device, consumers are proving them wrong. Just under 6m people watch broadcast mobile TV in Japan and South Korea and the new broadcast networks in Italy have already attracted just under half a million subscribers only a few months after launch. Mobile TV's revenue potential is greater than that of games or even music due to the mass market nature of the product. Screen Digest believes customers will subscribe to 'simulcast' channels ? that is, simultaneous broadcasts of conventional TV programming.
Regulatory and competitive pressures have pushed down the average consumer spend on voice and messaging. Mobile operators must now look to new content offerings to deliver the business growth they've enjoyed over the past decade. Screen Digest believes that the revenue is out there ? and operators should be looking to TV, music and games to deliver it.

Wi-Fi market will reach US $ 5.6 billion in revenues by 2012 ?

If market research report released by Telecom Trends International is to be believed then Wi-Fi is poised for widespread adoption in both consumer and enterprise market segments over the next six years. The report says the overall Wi-Fi market will reach US$5.6 billion in revenue in 2012.


Report anticipates - The industry adoption of 802.11n Draft Specification 2.0 will be a major factor in the growth of Wi-Fi. The specification will allow equipment vendors to transition to the final 802.11n standard next year through software upgrades. Offering end-user data rates of well over 100 Mb/s, 802.11n more than quadruples the speeds of Wi-Fi networks. With increasing Wi-Fi adoption in the enterprise market, revenue in the enterprise space will surpass that in the consumer market over the next six years. 802.11n will herald a networked home where multimedia networking will be the norm.

The implementation of Unlicensed Mobile Access represents the first step in fixed mobile convergence and the adoption of IP Multimedia Subsystem will give impetus to this convergence. According to the report, end-user devices are increasingly both voice and data enabled, and are becoming dual-mode, supporting both Wi-Fi and cellular networks. During the forecast period of this report, voice and data roaming between cellular and Wi-Fi networks will become seamless.

600 million mobile users in India by 2011 !!!

According to a new study published by the Centre for Telecoms Research (CTR) London, Mobile phone connections in India will reach 600 million in five years time. The growth will arise from pre-paid connections riding on cedreasing tariffs and handset prices. The report expects urban populations of India to reach high levels of mobile phone saturation in five years time, to the extent where many phone users will have two or more handset connections.

Mobile connections in rural geographies will be constrained by coverage of network infrastructure and affordability of handsets which will limit consumption to no more than 150 million by 2011 - the report says. The report also expects mobile phone users to spend more on mobile data services driven largely by the popularity of Bollywood mobile content (e.g. Ringtones, Icons etc)