According to a recent report from Informa Telecoms & Media, 3.5G subscribers worldwide will increase ten-fold from 2.5 million this year to more than 300 million in 2011. However, market growth will experience a hiccup this year and leading into 2007 because of a lack of compelling devices. Malik Saadi, one of the report's authors, said, "A lack of compelling devices and content led to delayed launches and slow take-up of WCDMA and EV-DO services, and early HSDPA and EV-DO Rev. A services are expected to suffer from the very same problems." So such a hiccup is no surprise, but should be seen as an opportunity by handset makers to come to market early and capitalize on the gap.
For more on the Informa report:
- take a look at this press release