By
Chris Fox on August 29th, 2008
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[CNET]
In spite of the economic slowdown, worldwide mobile-phone sales rose nearly 12 percent in the second quarter of 2008 from the same period in 2007, market research firm Gartner said Thursday.
Growth was driven largely by the Asia-Pacific region, in which sales grew 20.5 percent from the second quarter of 2007, and the Middle East and Africa, where handset sales increased 18 percent.
In the United States and Canada, 6.5 percent year-over-year growth was driven largely by sales of replacement handsets, as new subscribers only trickled in, Gartner said. (Fellow research firm NPD Group, by contrast, reported earlier this month that U.S. mobile-phone sales were 13 percent down from the second quarter of 2007.)
Gartner’s study did find a decrease in mobile-phone sales in Western Europe: down 8.2 percent down from the second quarter of 2007. And while the research firm forecasts 11 percent industrywide growth in 2008, it expects revenue growth to fall slightly behind that, as the economy and tougher competition take a toll on prices.
“The economic environment continued to negatively impact mobile-phone sales in both mature and emerging markets,” Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said in a release. “Consumers in mature markets continued to favor midtier devices over high-end devices, while new subscribers continued to join mobile networks in emerging markets during the quarter. However, replacement sales remained weak, as consumers faced higher prices for fuel and food, in addition to higher levels of inflation.”
The research firm has not changed its overall 2008 outlook of 1.28 billion handset sales.
[CNET]
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By
Chris Fox on August 28th, 2008
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[The Age]
Telstra Corp Ltd’s mobile phone revenue has surged, extending Australia’s biggest telecommunications company’s lead over rival Optus in the segment, as the company reaps the benefit of investing in the Next G network.
Mobile services revenue rose 12.3 per cent to $5.5 billion as the company increased the number of higher-value post paid subscribers and business users, Telstra said in its full-year report on Wednesday.
Average revenue per user (ARPU) increased 7.8 per cent to $49.5 a month as existing subscribers moved to third generation (3G) services and increased their use of data services such as mobile internet.
Optus, Australia’s second biggest telco, on Tuesday reported mobile services revenue growth of 5.8 per cent for the three months to June compared with the same period the year before. Optus’s ARPU was little changed at $44 per month.
Vodafone, the country’s third biggest mobile provider, increased revenue by 6.3 per cent in the June quarter from the year before.
“Given their growing market share and growing service revenue per user, it’s clear customers do see value,” Gartner research director for media and wireless, Robin Simpson, said.
“The growth numbers also shows the power of the incumbent. You’ve already got the customer relationships, so its easier to sell them added value.
“This really shows up Optus’s poor performance.”
Telstra’s Next G network, launched in October 2006, now covers 99 per cent of the Australian population and can offer maximum speeds of 14.4 megabits per second (Mbps) in some areas, although the hardware the company provides will only handle 7.2 Mbps.
“We’re going to focus on winning the 3G game and we’re going to focus on post paid customers,” Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo said at a media conference on Wednesday.
Optus Currently covers 96 per cent of the population, and plans to get to 98 per cent by the end of next year, with a maximum download speed of 3.6 Mbps.
“(Optus) was caught napping and their roll-out is still very slow,” Mr Simpson said.
“It’s going to be a year at least before there’s any real competition. Telstra has a nice year of making hay while the sun shines.”
Mr Simpson said there was potential for growth as consumers were only just starting to take up mobile broadband services.
“Consumers are only now learning about wireless broadband, smart phones and content and business people are even less far down that track,” he said.
[The Age]
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By
Chris Fox on August 27th, 2008
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[Cellular News]
Mobile advertising agency, AdMob has published their July Mobile Metrics Report, which focuses on increasing usage of the Mobile Web in Africa and worldwide mobile browser marketshare. Mobile Internet usage is growing across Africa, with particularly strong growth in Nigeria and Egypt. AdMob has seen traffic increase 21 percent since the company began tracking the Africa market in Q1 2008.
The report also noted that the Nokia dominates device market share throughout Africa, with 50.6 percent of the market. Nokia is the most popular device manufacturer in the top five countries of South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Tanzania. Worldwide Nokia and Openwave are the top browsers with 34 percent and 29 percent share, respectively. Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Palm, and Safari (Apple) all had less than 5 percent market share around the world.
Other key data from the report:
- Worldwide traffic grew 18 percent and US requests grew 5.8 percent month over month, while UK traffic was basically flat with a -0.5 percent change from June.
- Traffic from Smartphones continued to increase, while 25.6 percent of worldwide ad requests were from Smartphones in July, up from 24.3 percent in June.
- The Nokia N95 has overtaken the SonyEricsson k800i to be the top device in the UK with an 8.3% market share in July.
- The Philippines has been added to the report this month due to continuing strong mobile Web growth in the country.
- The report shows that 34 percent of traffic comes from Smartphones, and over 20 percent of traffic comes from devices with XL screen size, both metrics significantly higher than other countries.
- The Sony PlayStation Portable and iTouch are both in the Top 20 devices.
[Cellular News]
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By
Chris Fox on August 13th, 2008
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The US mobile data market grew 40 per cent year on year to 2Q2008, generating $8.2 billion Advisory firm Chetan Sharma Consulting says mobile data grossed $15.7 billion in the first six months of 2008, up 38 per cent year on year. This helped US operators increase data ARPUs by $0.46, while voice ARPU declined $0.05. Verizon is the data ARPU leader with $12.58, followed by Sprint at $12, AT&T at $11.59 and T-Mobile USA at $8.60. Non-messaging services account for 50 per cent to 60 per cent of US operator data revenues.
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By
Chris Fox on August 8th, 2008
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[VIA: Cellular News]
Communications market research firm Infonetics Research reports there were 3 times more mobile subscribers than access line subscribers worldwide in 2007 (3.3 billion vs. 1.1 billion), and expects continued strong growth in mobile subscribers, mainly driven by basic voice service needs in BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China).
Infonetics’ report shows that the number of mobile subscribers jumped 31% in 2007 over 2006, while access line subscribers declined 5%.
“Subscribers in Brazil, Russia, and later this year China, are migrating to 3G, which in turn will lead to a 2G and 2.5G to 3G subscriber migration process in 2008. However, current GSM deployment patterns remain unabated, with double-digit GSM subscriber growth rates being common in BRIC countries,” said Stéphane Téral, principal analyst at Infonetics Research.
Other highlights from the report:
- The number of worldwide mobile subscribers will reach 5.2 billion by 2011
- Cellular mobile broadband subscribers are forecast to grow at a 104% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2007 to 2011
- By 2011, there will be about 1 cellular mobile broadband subscriber for every 4 wireline broadband subscribers
- Access lines are declining and broadband penetration is increasing, fueling VoIP subscriber penetration
- Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) is the only region in which the number of access lines is expected to grow
- WiMAX is emerging as both a 3G mobile and a broadband wireline alternative
[VIA: Cellular News]
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By
Chris Fox on August 7th, 2008
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After reaching the 3 million mark in Feb, MobiTV is now claiming that it already boasts over 4 million subscriptions. Charlie Nooney, MobiTV’s CEO, was quoted as saying that the firm was “thrilled to be on the cusp of mass market acceptance for mobile entertainment in North America.”
Check it out - http://www.mobitv.com
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