Nielsen Company: U.S. Has 26M Smartphone Subscribers
Asian Mobile Gamers Led by China
| Global Users Surge, Or Do They? |
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Worldwide mobile cellular subscribers are likely to reach the 4-billion mark before the end of this year, according to the ITU. The year-on-year growth of cellular subscribers since 2000 has averaged 24%. In 2000, mobile penetration stood at only 12%; this year, it surpassed the 50% mark. It is estimated to reach about 61% by the end of 2008. Although the data shows impressive growth, the ITU warned that the figures need to be carefully interpreted. In theory, a 61% penetration rate suggests that at least every second person could be using a mobile phone. However, this isn’t the case. In fact, the statistics reflect the number of subscriptions, not people. Double-counting takes place when people have multiple subscriptions. Also, operators’ methods for counting active prepaid subscribers vary and often inflate the actual number of people that use mobile phones. |
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Hot Flash
A recent GSM Association study indicates that the market for mobile broadband-enabled notebook PCs is heating up and getting hotter. The total demand this year for notebooks is roughly79.5 million, a 
market worth about $50 billion. The study indicates 88% of consumers planning to buy a notebook in the $500-$1,000 price range want built-in mobile broadband.
Although most usage will occur at home, 78% of respondents cited at least two other locations where they use their notebooks on a regular basis.
Approximately 60% of consumers now want to buy a voice and data package from an operator with a mobile broadband notebook. The strongest demand is coming from Asia Pacific (57%), with North America (15%) and Western Europe (11%) following at a distant second and third.
Lost
Your wireless device is loaded with cool capabilities. But a WDSGlobal study claims that nearly one-fourth of them remain undiscovered by the average user.
Only 20% of a phone’s services and features are used regularly and up to 25% remain completely undiscovered.
According to Doug Overton, vice president of consulting and analysis, regular usage was largely confined to voice, text messaging, address book, camera and alarm clock. Service discovery is now one of the most challenging barriers to mobile service adoption.
“Many mobile phones offer dozens of features and pre-installed applications. It’s often the case that users feel overwhelmed,” said Overton. He attributes the “lost” revenue-generating services to poor user interfaces and complex menu structures.
Move Over, Netbooks
Although netbooks account for about 90% of today’s ultra mobile devices (UMDs), they will slip to a distant second place in 5 years, while mobile Internet device (MID) shipments will surge to take nearly 68% of the market, said Philip Solis, ABI’s research principal analyst.
The UMD market will still be small compared to the wireless handset market, but with a forecast revenue of nearly $27 billion in 2013, it will certainly be significant, according to the research firm.
To put the UMD market forecasts into perspective, the 2013 estimate of 200 million shipped devices is roughly the anticipated size of the worldwide laptop PC market.
Revenue Losses
Service providers incur an average of 1% revenue leakage with a maximum recovery of 50%. –TM Forum Revenue Assurance Benchmark Study
