Nov '07 - INDUSTRY NEWS: Mobile nearly half way to world domination
One in two people on the planet will have a mobile phone by 2008 and three out of every four will own
one by 2011. That's according to a new study from Portio Research, which forecasts that most of the growth will come from rural-dwellers in emerging economies in the Asia Pacific region.The study also predicts that:
- 1.5 billion new consumers will adopt mobile services over the next four years
- most of the 'next billion' will come from low-income segments
- among developed markets, the US will see five years of sustained high-value volume growth
The report, 'The Next Billion: Strategies for driving growth and making profits in low-ARPU mobile markets' is in no doubt about which are the most lucrative markets. Monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) for US subscribers for example is likely to be equivalent to yearly ARPU in rural regions of markets such as India and Pakistan. Indeed the report goes on to say that each North American subscriber is worth seven new subscribers in Asia.