USA lags behind in mobile data arena - Report


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Nov 28 2000

The explosive growth of mobile data usage in much of the world will not be matched in the US, according to a new strategic report. 

Within three years 72% of Western Europeans will be using mobile data services compared with just 44% in the States. 


Not until 2005 will data usage in the US start to catch up as the leading regions reach saturation point. 
	    Penetration of Mobile Data Users by region
	                       2000     2003    2005
	    USA               7%      44%     83%
	    Japan             21%     62%    90%
	    Asia/Pacific     1%       4%      8%
	    West Europe    23%     72%    91%
	    ROW               0%       4%     10%
	    Total              3%      12%     20%
	    
Regina Wong, ARC Group Consultant and lead author of the new
strategic report says "as well as relatively high fixed internet 
costs in Western Europe, the existence of the common GSM 
standard which largely eliminates roaming problems and patchy 
coverage, has contributed to high mobile data usage."


While the penetration of mobile data users in Asia-Pacific will 
be just 8% in 2005, this translates into some 282 million 
people compared with 83% of the US population equaling 
224 million and 91% of Western Europe's population 
accounting for 409 million.
The strategic report, entitled Wireless Internet: Applications, 
Technology and Market Strategies from consultants ARC Group 
http://www.the-arc-group.com, has found that the number 
of mobile data users will total nearly 1.2 billion worldwide in 2005. 


This will exceed users of fixed internet, which will grow to 
around 750 million during the same period.

The dramatic growth in mobile data will see wireless data 
communications eventually outpacing voice as the mobile 
market's driving factor, with 70% of mobile subscribers 
worldwide using data in 2005.

Regina Wong says, "Personalization, mobility, time and location 
sensitive features will prove crucial in the take-up of wireless 
data services. In fact, by 2005 all data users will be taking 
advantage of location-based services. Personal Information 
Management (PIM) will be the most popular application over 
the next few years but will be overtaken by navigation/location 
services by 2005."


According to the report, mobile entertainment will be another
 popular service totalling 444 million users worldwide by 2003 
and rising to 959 million in 2005. Financial services will be nearly 
as popular in five years time with 920 million people 
expected to be using such services.

Applications Sorted by Popularity (Number of Users)
2000                        2003                          2005
1. PIM                      1.PIM                         1. Navigation/location
2. Entertainment         2. Entertainment         2. PIM
3. Financial Services   3. Navigation/location   3. Entertainment
4. Internet browsing    4. Financial Services    4. Financial Services
5. Navigation/location  5. Internet browsing     5. Internet browsing
6. m-Commerce/Retail  6. m-Commerce/Retail  6. m-Commerce/Retail
7. Intranet                 7. Intranet                7. Intranet