How much is $10 billion? It’s a tough number for consumers to truly understand, since it is of no practical use to us in every day society. Yet when we’re talking about an entire industry, $10 billion is easier to wrap our heads around. It’s the number that U.S. operators collected for mobile data service in the first quarter of 2009. This includes a 5 percent growth over the fourth quarter 2008, and a 32 percent gain year-over-year. It’s an enormous number, for sure, and you can bet that high atop carriers’ collective priority list is growing that number even further throughout the rest of the year.
Not only is this a big number, but the folks at Chetan Sharma Consulting believe that this signals the end of the recession as car as the wireless industry is concerned. They say: “In summary, the recession has been all but a tiny blip (from the service revenue perspective) in its growth trend and the U.S. mobile market has weathered the downward spiral in economy better than its counterparts in other developing nations.” Let’s hope they’re not getting ahead of themselves.
Mobile data revenues benefit from having two distinct and popular entry points. First is smartphones like Apple’s iPhone, which consumers use for Web browsing, messaging, and phone services. The other is mobile broadband, which can be accessed by aircards and USB keys. Both of these have distinct advantages, and it all leads to increasing carrier revenues. With the country still mired in a recession, they shouldn’t be expecting huge gains, but if Chetan is correct in its analysis, they could continue to see steady growth as the nation slowly recovers.
Related posts:
