Worldwide revenues from mobile data services will rise to $189 billion by 2009, up from $61 billion this year, says a new report from Strategy Analytics.
Mobile entertainment such as; ringtones, games, music and sports, is also expected to account for a significant proportion of revenue by 2009 at 28%.
Senior analyst, Philip Taylor said: “Mobile data services are currently undergoing a period of strong growth as a result of carrier strategies, many of which were implemented in late 2002 and 2003, that have succeeded in establishing a strong base for consumer demand. These include better marketing, lower data prices, greater service availability, faster transmission speeds, richer handset features and more intuitive user interfaces.”
Sending text messages by SMS will remain the favourite form of person-to-person communications up until 2009 and beyond, accounting for over one-half of revenues generated by mobile communications.