Revenues from mobile data services are set to exceed US$200 billion this year for the first time, according to a new global report from Informa Telecoms & Media.
Total mobile data revenues were approximately US$157 billion in 2007, with research from the first quarter of 2008 revealing that revenues exceeded US$49 billion, accounting for a 42.7% year on year increase.
This figure means that mobile operators now generate approximately one fifth of their revenue from data services. Informa estimates that non-SMS data contributed US$17.48 billion of revenue in Q108, accounting for 35.6% of total data revenues.
“Growth drivers for the increase in data revenues include the acceleration in deployment of advanced technologies, an increasingly competitive market, and of course, growing consumer demand for mobile data services driven by popular data-optimised devices such as Apple’s iPhone”, says Informa principal analyst, Nick Jotischky.
The Asia Pacific region comprises 40% of the world’s data revenues (over US$20 billion in Q108), representing an above average year on year growth rate of 48%.
The biggest regional riser, however, is the Middle East, which despite contributing just 2% of the world’s data revenues in the first quarter of 2008, has seen a 91.7% year on year increase in this figure to US$927 million. Aiding this acceleration is the 321% year on year rise in the number of HSPA subscribers in the region, which reached 2.9 million by the end of March 2008.
A report published by comScore M:Metrics found that iPhone users surpass all others in mobile media usage, with more than 80% of iPhone users in France, Germany and the UK using the device to browse news and information on the mobile web (see iPhone Users Top Mobile Media Usage).
Analysys Mason forecast that revenue from mobile media and entertainment (MME) services in the US will more than double during the next five years (see US Mobile Media Revenues To Double During Next Five Years).
US MME services (excluding messaging, and mobile browsing and data charges) generated US$3.1 billion in revenue in 2007, and Analysys Research forecasts that revenue will grow to $6.6 billion in 2012, at a compound annual growth rate of 16.3%.
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