Mobile data will have a U.S. population penetration rate of nearly 60% by 2007, up from its current 2%, according to a new report released by The Strategis Group. This better-than-expected growth is attributed to aggressive deployment of high-speed services in the U.S. In the study, US Mobile Data Marketplace, The Strategis Group examined wireless technologies such as cellular/PCS, two-way paging, messaging and mobile satellite and gauged their growth potential in the burgeoning mobile data market.
The Strategis Group projected the size of the market will increase exponentially, with mobile data subscribers growing from 5 million in 2000 to 172 million in 2007. The highest growth will be in packet data over cellular/PCS networks, which will comprise 67% of the mobile data market in 2007.
“With AT&TÂ’s announcement of plans for a GSM/GPRS network, the mobile data bandwagon has gathered steam,” said Naqi Jaffery, vice president and director, North American Wireless at The Strategis Group. “This follows NextelÂ’s launch of a high-speed packet-data network, the launch of digital PocketNet service, the deployment of circuit-switched CDMA and the availability of two-way SMS on TDMA and CDMA networks. With all of these factors coming together, that bandwagon will only continue to accelerate.”
