Over 100 million young people aged between 5 and 24 will own a mobile phone by the end of 2003, according to a new study from the Wireless World Forum (W2F).
mobileYouth 2003 examined ownership in twenty prominent markets and it is estimated that 104 million or 44% of 5-24 year olds will have a mobile at the end of this year. Penetration is predicted to increase to 57% in 2006, by which time there will be 134 million users in this age group.
Young people have shown a particularly strong interest in texting and mobile data services and it is estimated that spending on SMS (including mobile email) will increase from â‚Ź11.7 billion this year to â‚Ź17.2 billion in 2006. Spending on all products and services is expected to rise by 50% to â‚Ź20.1 billion over the next three years.
The study is largely positive about the efforts made by the mobile industry to embrace the youth market. However, services such as mobile gaming and MMS are yet to catch on (see Will Europeans Respond To MMS Marketing?) and W2F argues that “new products must be developed and marketed with a better understanding of the youth needs that they endeavour to satisfy or they will potentially fail.”
According to the report, too many companies make the mistake of segmenting the mobile population based on age and gender. In addition, the market has become saturated and products such as EMS and MP3 enabled phones proved to be a failure.
| Mobile Usage Forecasts For 5-24 Year Olds In 20 Key Markets |
| |
|
|
| |
2003 |
2006 |
| Mobile Phone Owners (m) |
104 |
134 |
| SMS Spend (â‚Źbn) |
11.9 |
17.2 |
| MMS Spend (â‚Źbn) |
<0.1 |
0.4 |
| Ringtone Spend (â‚Źbn) |
1.3 |
2.2 |
| Mobile Java Gaming (â‚Źbn) |
0.1 |
0.3 |
| Source: Wireless World Forum (W2F), March 2003 |
