Mobile & VoIP» trend

Trend: More People Connecting to the Internet via Mobiles

edward — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:46:32 +0000

Nearly a quarter of the world’s population – roughly 1.4 billion people – will use the Internet on a regular basis in 2008. This number is expected to surpass 1.9 billion unique users, or 30% of the world’s population, in 2012, according to IDC’s Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast.

“The Internet will have added its second billion users over a span of about eight years, a testament to both its universal appeal and its availability,” said John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC. “In this time, the Internet has also become more deeply integrated into the fabric of many users’ personal and professional lives, enabling them to work, play, and socialize anytime from anywhere. These trends will accelerate as the number of mobile users continues to soar and the Internet becomes truly ubiquitous.”

While the PC is currently the dominant means of gaining access to the Internet, IDC expects the number of mobile devices accessing the Internet will surpass the number of online PCs by 2012. Once on the Internet, users will continue to spend time on Web 1.0 activities like searching, shopping, and sending email. But Web 2.0 activities, such as watching user-generated videos, posting blogs, and participating in social networks, are quickly capturing the attention and time online of more and more Internet users. The latter will create new opportunities and challenges for online advertisers seeking to monetize the Internet experience.

Highlights from IDC’s Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast include the following:

* Users will access the Internet through more than 1.5 billion devices worldwide in 2008, including PCs, mobile phones, and online videogame consoles. By 2012, the number of devices accessing the Internet will double to more than 3 billion, half of which will be mobile devices.

* China passed the United States in 2007 to become the country with the largest number of Internet users. China’s online population is forecast to grow from 275 million users in 2008 to 375 million users in 2012.

* Nearly half of all Internet users will make online purchases in 2008. By 2012, there will be more than 1 billion online buyers worldwide making business to consumer (B2C) transactions worth $1.2 trillion. Business to business (B2B) eCommerce will be ten times larger, totalling $12.4 trillion worldwide in 2012.

* Worldwide spending on Internet advertising will total $65.2 billion in 2008, which is nearly 10% of all ad spending across all media. This share is expected to reach 13.6% by 2011 as Internet ad spending grows to $106.6 billion worldwide.

* Roughly 40% of all Internet users worldwide currently have mobile Internet access. The number of mobile Internet users will reach 546 million in 2008, nearly twice as many as in 2006, and is forecast to surpass 1.5 billion worldwide in 2012.

* The most popular online activities today are searching the Web, finding information for personal use, using Internet email, accessing news and sports information, and accessing financial or credit information. In addition to these activities, more than 50% of online users worldwide are using instant messaging and playing online games. The fastest growing online activities include accessing business applications, creating blogs, online gambling, accessing work-related email, and participating in online communities.

* Among mobile Internet users, the most popular online activities are searching the Web, accessing news and sports information, downloading music, videos, and ringtones, using instant messaging, and using Internet email. By 2012, downloading music, videos, and ringtones will become the number one activity among mobile Internet users worldwide.

IDC’s Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast provides worldwide and regional data for a wide range of Internet categories and activities. Traditional Web 1.0 categories include Internet users, devices using the Internet, Internet buyers, and B2C and B2B eCommerce. Web 2.0 categories look more closely at what Internet users are doing online, with breakouts by activity and gender. The database also includes a detailed look at online advertising spending worldwide. Forecast data for the 2008-2012 period is supplemented by historical data from 2006 and 2007. The Web 1.0 categories include detailed information on more than 40 individual countries.

IDC‘s Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast

A Mobile VoIP Forecast & What’s Up With Jajah, Raketu & mig33

VoIP — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:21:47 +0000

Mobile VoIP is going to become a major force over the next five years, rapidly outpacing voice over Wi-Fi, according to a recently released report by research firm Disruptive Analysis. The report predicts that the number of VoIP over 3G users will top 250 million by the end of 2012 — from virtually zero in 2007. The caveat, of course, is if carriers allow it. If T-Mobile’s recent fracas with Truphone is any indication, the carriers are worried about VoIP over 3G.

* mig33, a mobile communications service provider, is adding over 20,000 users a day and now has eight million subscribers. The company is adding new features and slowly becoming a mobile social network. And as they get their makeover, Jajah is adding a new service that reminds me of the old mig33, Rebtel and Talkplus.

* Jajah’s new service, called Jajah Direct, will allow you to make international calls for free or at local rates. Go to the their Local Access Number web site, enter the international number you want to call and get connected. After your first call, you will receive a unique local number for each of your contacts that you can store in your phone or address book for future dialing.

Jajah’s Frederik Hermann just emailed and said that “you never have to be online to sign up for JAJAH Direct, you can sign up over the phone and manage your account from there. We will give out the local access number to our premier target groups, immigrants and expats on a flyer and they can go from there, no Internet access needed.”

* ~~Jajah’s service needs at least one-time access to a PC.~~ Raketu~~, by comparison,~~ recently introduced an SMS-based VoIP callback service. You send an SMS message to a local number and include in the message the number you want to dial; N.Y.-based Raketu then calls you and connects you to the number you are trying to reach.

The funny thing is that despite all these service, the calling-card business isn’t taking a nosedive. I guess the people that most need to shave pennies off their phone bills — primarily immigrants — find it’s easier to just buy their minutes in $10 increments from the corner store

*Asia’s BIGGEST & Fastest Growing networks

blogger — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:43:03 +0000

No fewer than 16 companies added more than 5 million customers over the course of the twelve months ended June 07. China Mobile heads the list with a massive 58.6 million customers – as many as the next three operators put together, and then some. As we have suggested before, it would take a genuinely radical restructuring of China’s communications industry to threaten the company’s world leading position and that seems unlikely.

Largest MNOs by Net Additons

In aggregate, just over 75 million new customers were connected in China over the last year, with the balance of 16.55 million coming from Unicom. That number wasn’t enough to give the Chinese number two the regional number two spot, which goes to Bharti of India. Over the same period, India’s number one added just under 20 million new connections – 19.63 million to be precise. That equates to 28% of the Indian market’s growth and it is little surprise to see that a further four Indian companies come into the regional top ten.

However, India is not the only growth market in the region and in fact, fourth place goes to a company that is based rather further east. Although its place in the rankings is under threat from Bharti, amongst others, Telkomsel of Indonesia was the fourth largest operator in the region at the end of June (and the tenth largest in the world), having added over 13 million new connections in the twelve month period.

The four other Indian companies take fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth places, while two operators from Pakistan fill the other slots.

Vodafone India is experiencing the same kind of resurgence that was experienced by Telsim in Turkey, following its acquisition by the UK global leader. Hutchison undoubtedly did a good job building up this business, but equally, there can be little doubt that Vodafone can take the company one stage further. The need to invest in its troublesome European 3G assets rather constrained Hutchison’s ability to invest here; Vodafone, now that the proposal from Efficient Capital Structures has been laughed out of court, suffers no such problem.

There can be little doubt that the ultimate aim is to achieve market leadership in India, overtaking Reliance and Bharti. The first part of this has probably already been achieved, the second may take a little longer.

BSNL, Reliance and IDEA are the other three Indian names in the top ten. They may have something to say about this ambition, but none has the financial firepower to match Vodafone if it is genuinely determined. BSNL took sixth place in the ranking of the fastest growing companies in the year with just under 10 million new connections. Reliance would have beaten BSNL had it not been for the SIM registration effect, but in the long term, it may be hampered by its initial choice of CDMA technology. Finally in India, IDEA has recently raised additional capital in an IPO and this is helping fuel its growth. It connected 7.59 million customers over the year.

Pakistan’s population is less than one sixth the size of India’s but it takes the two other places through Pakistan Mobile (+9.33 million) and Telenor Pakistan (+7.5 million). In fact, both Pakistan Telecom and Warid Telecom Pakistan also managed to add more than 5 million customers, with net additions of 6.5 million and 5.8 million respectively. The chart shows all 16 of the 5 million+ club.

Trend: Japan, 1Million Phones a week

blogger — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:42:55 +0000

Of the 47.8 million mobile handsets sold in Japan in 2006, 43.5 million units – or more than 92 percent – are 3G phones, reports In-Stat. In its “3G Handset Trends in Japan” report, the market analyst reveals that the mobile phone market has been very active in producing mobile phones with brilliant displays, rich multimedia capabilities and various novel functions. In Japan alone, 98 new 3G models were introduced in the last 12 months to gain customer acceptance and market share. A trend-setting market, Japan has “standardized” mobile phone features to include a camera, music player function and 2.4in or larger screen supporting at least 240×320-pixel resolution.