By 2015 the mobile content market could be worth well in excess of $1 trillion, with voice comprising only a 10% share of the market - if the industry gets it right. Currently mobile operators are still not opening up their networks for mobile content; one of the main reasons being that the current mobile technologies are not well-suited for the delivery of what the market calls ‘rich experience’ content (multimedia, video, etc). So for now mobile data traffic will continue to comprise mostly SMS, followed by ringtones and a small proportion of everything else. The focus of the mobile operators will also remain on protecting their lucrative voice business for the time being.

Key highlights:

• In 2007 the worldwide mobile data market is worth over $100 billion.
• While voice still makes up the majority of mobile traffic, it is estimated that mobile data now contributes more than 10% of global ARPU.
• There are over 100 HSDPA networks either planned, in deployment or already commercially launched in more than 50 countries around the world.
• Around 40 mobile operators are trialling or deploying IP Multimedia systems.
• Entering 2007, South Korea leads the world in terms of mobile TV subscriber adoption, but Europe, Japan and the US are expected to become key markets in the future, due to their large mobile subscriber bases and popularity of TV viewing.
• SMS remains an attractive application, with around a trillion text messages sent every year. The mobile industry is now looking towards Instant Messaging (IM), with dozens of trials taking place around the world.
• Another extension of the immensely popular SMS service is the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS); this provides the ability to send longer text messages, as well as music and pictures. However with each message costing on average around four times the cost of an SMS, price is hindering the take-up of this service.
• Asia Pacific currently dominates the mobile entertainment market, but North America will increasingly taker a larger share over the next five years.
• Also in the next five years, the introduction of mobile wallets will lead to mobile phones enabled with NFC representing around 30% of yearly handset shipments.
• While Location-Based Services (LBS) were over-hyped earlier this decade, hope has been rekindled following the emergence of handset-based GPS-enabled location services.
• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has also existed for more than a decade, and is only now gaining popularity due to emerging awareness of its many industry applications. North America is the biggest regional player in RFID, accounting for around 60% of regional market revenues.

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