Imaging-enabled mobiles and personal digital assistants (PDAs) may be the mobile telecom industry’s much needed tonic, with shipments of such devices set to reach 151 million units by 2006, according to a new report from IDC.
The report,
Moving Pictures: The Future of Mobile Devices and Imaging, points toward the improvements that the much-touted 2.5G and 3G mobile networks will bring to the user, enabling transmission of multimedia content. However, the very 3G investments themselves are currently on shaky ground (see
Insight Analysis: 3G Promises Unfulfilled).
“Combining these network capabilities with advanced imaging-enabled mobile devices will drive future growth in revenues, subscriptions, and shipments,” claims Alex Sawsby, research analyst for IDC’s Smart Handheld Devices research.
The current example from Japan is that 2.5G wireless networks and imaging-enabled mobile phones are driving up subscribers and revenues for NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and J-Phone. Other carriers in Asia and Europe are set to follow with similar services being launch throughout next year, according to IDC.
The report also forecasts that more than 900 million people worldwide will subscribe to a wireless service by the end of this year.
