Metrics and Trends

Politicos tout mobile campaigning at CTIA

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:59:54 -0400

Former presidential candidates John Edwards and Fred Thompson headlined Thursday's keynote presentation at CTIA Wireless 2008, largely sidestepping pressing issues directly impacting the mobile industry audience members in attendance. Opening remarks from CTIA president and CEO Steve Largent suggested the discussion would spotlight the regulatory issues looming over the wireless landscape: A short video segment assembled in conjunction with consumer advocacy group mywireless.org argued against government intervention via statistical snapshots indicating that 69 percent of U.S. wireless subscribers believe they are already paying too much for wireless taxes, 74 percent believe additional regulation would make their bills even higher, and 84 percent believe that a free market economy is sufficient to regulate pricing.

However, the event never again returned to lawmakers' impact on wireless, with both Edwards and Thompson instead outlining their respective views on the state of American politics, culture and society as the 2008 election draws closer. Decrying the media's "focus on the superficial," Edwards proclaimed that citizens deserve a daily dialog that illuminates how each candidate would tackle hot-button issues like the economy, the environment and healthcare if he or she wins the presidential race. "Wireless is important to provide this information," Edwards said, citing the enormous impact of mobile and the web on how campaigns are operated and political messages disseminated.

"[Wireless] has changed the basic dynamic of how we fund campaigns," Edwards continued. "We invited voters to text the word 'Hope' to join our campaign, and had literally tens of thousands who signed up. What happens is [these technologies] democratize the process--instead of a few who control funding and access, it's now being dispersed ... Wireless takes us to a new dimension."

By contrast, Thompson's keynote largely eschewed discussion of mobile: "John said what needed to be said--you can't get away with nothin' anymore," he cracked, agreeing the platform is a hugely positive element of the modern campaign process. Thompson instead split his podium time between a series of corny jokes satirizing his failed presidential bid and more serious subject matter like terrorism, the tax burdens facing an aging population, the cynicism of American people and what he called "the phenomenon of John McCain."

A question-and-answer session following the two candidates also squandered the opportunity to debate wireless regulation--while audience members were invited to submit questions via SMS, Largent chose to query the former senators on subjects including their personal heroes, the bipartisan schism in American politics and the impact of 24-hour news coverage.-- Jason

India set to overtake U.S. as number 2

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:59:56 -0400

According to a report from India's regulatory body the Telecom Regulatory Authority announced that India will become the second largest mobile phone market after China. The U.S. currently holds the position as the market with the second largest number of subscribers. India counted 250.9 million wireless users at the end of February, while the U.S. counted 260.5 million users at that time. China counted 540.5 million users. Despite China's monstrous figure, India has it beat in terms of growth: India added about 8.53 million new subscribers during February, while the U.S. added 2 million new users.

For more on India's growth:
- read this article from Telecom Tiger

Related Articles:
India's Reliance looks overseas for WiMAX play Article
Vodafone on the slide in India Article

Report: Consumers comfortable banking on mobiles

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:59:54 -0400

According to a recent report from Harris Interactive, consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable using their mobile phones to access their bank account information and make payments while out and about. The report is based on a survey that found 16 percent of mobile phone users already use some form of mobile banking services with 60 percent of these people using such services at least once a week. Of those not using mobile banking services, 35 percent said they were open to use such services and 33 percent said they would like to receive text message alerts from the banks.

For more on the survey:
- read this press release

Should carriers sell laptops?

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:59:54 -0500

A recent report from Pyramid Research indicates that wireless carriers that sell laptops in their stores may help improve uptake of their wireless broadband services. According to the report, Russia's MTS, Telefonica's O2, T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone Globul and PLDT all sell laptops in some of their markets. BusinessWeek suggests that carriers should even subsidize laptops in order to drive demand for their data networks.

For more on the trend:
- read this BusinessWeek article

Metric: Mobile broadband use up 154%

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:59:54 -0500

According to a recent report from ComScore, U.S. Internet usage via mobile broadband increased 154 percent during 2007. The study looked at data collected from computers that accessed the Internet via mobile broadband service providers. Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel took the lionshare of the mobile broadband market, while AT&T recently announced plans to increase its coverage. The study found that 59 percent of the traffic came from work computers while 41 percent came from personal home computers.

For more on the trend:
- read this article from Baltimore Business Journal

Related Articles:
Mobile broadband hardware grew 117 percent. Article
GSMA officially backs LTE for mobile broadband. Article

Live from MWC: Open systems, LTE and more

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:59:59 -0500

Live from MWC: Open systems, LTE and the mobile Web

After a day spent scurrying between press conferences and briefings, I picked up some common themes which I expect to hear more about as the Mobile World Congress progresses. Here's a rundown:

Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks both touted their LTE solutions and talked about how their next-generation network technology would revolutionize the mobile Web. Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo touted his company's success in Australia where Telstra's HSPA network from Ericsson is generating $100-plus ARPUs and data usage is surging.
Imaging handsets now have 5-megapixel cameras and music phones come equipped with FM-transistors.
Nokia's purchase of Trolltech means a future with open operating systems that allow developers to develop applications cross-platform. I expect to hear more of this cross-platform capability from others.
In the post-iPhone era, handset makers are working overtime on making the user interface simple and intuitive. As Nokia's Olli Pekka-Kallasvuo said during this morning's press conference, "As the technology inside the devices becomes more complex, people are demanding more simplicity."

Stay tuned to FierceWireless, FierceMobileContent and the FierceWireless:Europe for all our coverage from the Mobile World Congress. -Sue

AT&T adds 2.7M subs

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:59:58 -0500

The largest U.S. wireless operator reported strong subscriber and revenue growth in fourth quarter 2007. Wireless revenues totaled $11.4 billion, up 16.3 percent over the year-ago quarter. Service revenues were $10.2 billion. Here's a rundown of other key metrics:

Growth: AT&T added 2.7 million net wireless subscribers, up 13.5 percent from fourth quarter 2006. In addition, gross adds totaled 6 million, up 9.6 percent from the year-earlier fourth quarter. At year-end AT&T's total wireless subscriber base was 70.1 million.

ARPU: ARPU was up 2 percent to $50.28. AT&T said this was the sixth consecutive quarter that it has reported ARPU growth.

Data: Data revenues increased 57.5 percent over the year-ago quarter. The total data revenue is now $2 billion, up from $1.3 billion a year ago. Data now accounts for $12 of postpaid ARPU and it makes up 19.9 percent of AT&T's total wireless service revenue. During the quarter, AT&T customers sent 496 million MMS and 32 billion text messages.

iPhone: At year-end AT&T had 2 million iPhone customers on its network and 40 percent of those customers were new to AT&T. In December, the company doubled its iPhone sales as compared to sales in October and November.

TDMA: AT&T will shut down its TDMA network at the end of February. The operator moved 390,000 subscribers off the network in fourth quarter and there are about 390,000 subscribers that remain on the TDMA network. AT&T says most of those are wholesale customers. -Sue

For more on AT&T's quarter:
- read this press release

Qualcomm's profit up, meets expectations

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:59:55 -0500

For its fourth quarter report, Qualcomm posted a profit of $767 million, or 46 cents a share, which is up from the $648 million, or 38 cents a share, it posted in the year-ago quarter. Revenue was also up 21 percent, to $2.44 billion. Qualcomm expects the current quarter to yield 50 to 52 cents a share on revenue of $2.4 billion to $2.5 billion, which was right in line with analysts' estimates.

For more on Qualcomm's quarter:
- read this release

Report: Mobile marketing to hit $24B in rev

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 06:59:54 -0500

According to a recent report from ABI Research, mobile marketing is on track to hit $24 billion in revenue worldwide by 2013. That figure is nearly twelve times the sector's current revenue pull: $1.8 billion in 2007. A recent survey by ABI found that while 54 percent of mobile users were totally opposed to marketing messages, 70 percent of those respondents, however, said an incentive like a ringtone would make them more receptive.

"The clear difference in this market over the past twelve months has been the embrace of mobile marketing as an integral part of cross-media brand campaigns," says ABI Research director Michael Wolf. "Mobile is no longer off-limits in the minds of advertisers, but is instead seen as a very personal way to reach consumers who can be incentivized through information services and compelling content, as well as through more directly relevant and targeted messaging."

For more on the report:
- read this press release

Related:
- See what FierceMobileContent had to say about this story. Article
- Study: One in four interested in mobile marketing
- Mobile Marketing Association issues EMEA guidelines

U.S. consumers want one m-payment account

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:59:54 -0500

According to a recent report from ABI Research, U.S. consumers are becoming more interested in using their mobile handsets for in-store payments using near-field communications (NFC), but most users prefer to have only one credit or debit account that is separate from others not used for NFC purchases. In a separate report, ABI also lowered its forecast for the value of the NFC market to $200 million, but noted it should reach an $820 million valuation over the next five years.

For more on the report:
- read this press release
- read this one on the forecast

Wireless: The undercurrent of CES

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:59:59 -0500

Wireless: The undercurrent of CES
Years ago when I would attend the Consumer Electronics Show, I would spend most of my time in the wireless pavilion of the show floor visiting with handset makers and accessory manufacturers that would dominate that area. I rarely ventured away from the designated wireless portion of the show floor because there was no need to look elsewhere for mobile products.

Flash-forward to the 2008 CES and that scenario no longer holds true. While there is still a designated wireless area, called Wireless World, it only has exhibits from a handful of firms: Qualcomm, Sprint, Nokia, UTStarcom and a few others.

But that doesn't mean that wireless doesn't have a significant presence at the show. It's actually prevalent all over the conference--embedded in in-car navigation system booths, displayed in the laptop and handheld computer exhibits and present at the gaming booths. It's clear that wireless is becoming a requisite part of most consumer electronics devices.

And when I say wireless, I don't just mean WiFi. This vision of wireless connectivity for all devices extends beyond WiFi to include WiMAX, HSPA and 1xEV-DO. Wireless companies are embracing that vision and firms such as Qualcomm, Motorola and Ericsson and others are now structuring their businesses to sell WiMAX, 1xEV-DO and HSPA technologies to consumer electronics device makers. Ericsson's Mobile Broadband Modules business unit believes that by 2011 more than 50 percent of all new notebooks will have embedded HSPA.

Of course, one of the first to talk to me about wireless connectivity being embedded in every consumer electronics device was Barry West, the president of Sprint Nextel's Xohm Business Unit. West and his team have championed this vision for a long time and it appears that finally others are following their lead.

But I'm still unclear on the business model for this vision. How will wireless operators provision and charge consumers for all these devices that access their networks? I've heard rumblings of "family plans" for devices, in which carriers charge consumers a minimal fee for every extra device they have on the network instead of setting up individual accounts for every device. I'm not convinced this is the answer and I hope that operators are thinking of a variety of different pricing plans. We know from experience that without the right business model, this vision will not succeed. -Sue

P.S. See more of our CES coverage here...

Wireless buoys AT&T

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:59:57 -0500

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told investors at a Citigroup event that the company had been affected by the weak economy: "So we're really experiencing some softness on the consumer side of the house from the economy," he said. However, AT&T's wireless business isn't experiencing much impact from the economy, according to the CEO. "As the economy gets soft, wireless starts to become the last thing" that consumers let go of, he said. "And traditional access lines become one of the first."

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Craig Moffett, a telecom analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, noted that wireless phones are now indispensable, but he said even mobile phone bills may start to go unpaid if the economy worsens.

For more on AT&T's outlook:
- read this article from CNET

For more on the wireline side:
- read this article from FierceTelecom

Households spend more on mobile than landlines

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:59:55 -0500

While the dominance of residential landline telephony services has been on the decline for some time, U.S. households have never spent more on their mobile phone services than on landline ones until this year, according to industry and government officials. Back in 2001, U.S. households spent three times as much on landline phone services than they did on mobile phone services, but last year the popularity of mobile services bridged that gap significantly. Households spent $524 on mobile phone services in 2006, while they spent about $542 during the course of the year on landline phone services. While the metrics for 2007 have yet to be compiled, analysts and government officials are confident that spending on mobile services has outstripped spending on landline telephony this past year.

"Frankly, I'd be shocked if (households) don't spend more on cell phones at this point," said Andrew Arthur, vice president of market solutions at Mediamark Research & Intelligence.

For more on the trend:
- read this article from AP

Report: LG Voyager most popular online

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:59:54 -0500

According to a report from Compete, the LG Voyager was the most popular handset in November for online shoppers. Compete tracks the number of page views a handset's webpage gets on carrier sites. The Voyager had 131 percent more visitors than the third most shopped for handset, the Samsung SGH-T609. The other top ten most shopped for phones were: the Sidekick Slide, Sidekick ID, LG Venus, Sony Ericsson z310a, Sony Ericsson W508i, the iPhone, Sidekick LX and the Pantech C150.

For more:
- see this slideshow of the top most shopped for phones
- read this article from CNET

LG raises handset sales goal

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:59:54 -0500

South Korean handset maker LG said it expects a Q4 operating profit margin of around 8 percent for its mobile handsets, which it expects to sell 80 million of this year alone. The handset maker recently announced that is has sold 15 million Chocolates to date. Next year LG has forecasted handset sales of 100 million. LG is also looking to boost domestic sales of its handsets, including a goal of selling 500,000 Viewty sales in Korea next year. The company has also announced plans to launch a new handset that will replace its Shine phone.

For more on LG:
- read this WSJ article (sub. req.)

AT&T: wireless rev to grow in mid-teens in 2008

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 06:59:58 -0500

AT&T Mobility announced that it expects revenue to increase by a mid-teen percentage in 2008 thanks in part to the recent acquisition of Dobson Communications. The carrier said savings from merger synergies and other items will increase by $2 billion next year. The company's growth in wireless is fueled by broadband upgrades to its network and its exclusive deal with Apple for the iPhone (consumers can buy up to five iPhones at a time now). On the analyst call to discuss AT&T's projected growth for next year, AT&T Mobility president and CEO Ralph de la Vega repeated his claims that AT&T's network is already "open" because the carrier's GSM networking technology allows users to swap SIMs into different phones, allowing for greater device portability. That doesn't apply to the iPhone, though.

For more on AT&T's forecast:
- read this write-up from the Motley Fool

Metric: 13.6% of U.S. homes wireless only

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 06:59:54 -0500

According to a report from the National Health Interview Survey, the number of households that rely exclusively on mobile phones for phone service has steadily increased since 2003 and now accounts for 13.6 percent of households in the U.S. The report found that 55 percent of all adults who live with unrelated roommates use only cell phones. The group has the highest penetration of "mobile phone only" users. Another interesting metric: 28 percent of renters were mobile only, while a mere 6.7 percent of homeowners only used mobile phones.

For more on the report:
- read this write-up from RCR News

LG sells 15 million Chocolate phones

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:59:55 -0500

LG announced that by the end of this month it will have sold 15 million Chocolate handsets worldwide. As of April, LG had sold 10 million Chocolate handsets. The phone has been released in about 100 countries around the world and most of these markets have seen a decline in sales for the handset. However, some markets, like Japan, Central America, the Middle East and Africa are still seeing an uptick in sales since the phone launched later in those markets.

For more on the milestone:
- read this report from Chosun

Related Articles:
Verizon Wireless launches LG Chocolate in June. Article
LG Chocolate goes on sale in China. Article
LG Chocolate turns one-year-old. Article
Report: Top selling phones in the U.S. Article

AT&T looks to APAC for growth

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 06:59:57 -0500

With recent boosts to its operations in India, Vietnam and other countries, AT&T has invested aggressively in Asia (the continent, not the band) and it looks like the effort is paying off. Through the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, AT&T officials say they are expecting revenue growth of at least 20 percent next year. Specific countries like India and China are at the top of the list of the money-makers, having grown by 40 percent and 30 percent respectively in 2006. That's got to be a nice departure from the lowering margins its home market offers, and soon, instead of describing domestic wireless and broadband as its top growth engines, maybe AT&T will be citing Asia-Pac. -Dan

For more:
- read this story in The Wall Street Journal

China produces 40% of mobile phones

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 06:59:56 -0500

According to a report from China's Ministry of Information Industry, China produced about 500 million mobile phones, or more than 40 percent of all phones made worldwide in 2007. The figure marks a 41 percent increase in production over last year. About 80 percent of the phones, or 400 million, were exported. According to the report 38 companies manufacture mobile phones in China. That said, Chinese manufacturers lost about 2 percent market penetration domestically in 2007.

For more on China's growing mobile manufacturing prowess:
- read this article from PC World