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NEWSPEAK
Pay by mobile
A new analysis of the global mobile payments opportunity forecasts that 2.1bn mobile subscribers will "pay by mobile" for digital goods downloaded to their mobile phones by 2013. Juniper Research defines digital goods as music (ringtones and full tracks), tickets, TV, user-generated content, infotainment and games - in fact any content bought by phone and delivered to the phone.
A region-by-region analysis by Juniper Research found that there is a significant growth opportunity not only for mobile payment systems, software, support and consultancy services vendors, but also for mobile operators to increase their arpu as transaction frequencies accelerate.
Report author Howard Wilcox notes: "Many digital content goods and services are becoming basic ‘must haves' - particularly in the sub 35 age group. Devices like the iPhone - even in its 3G incarnation - are undoubtedly contributing to consumer awareness and usage of mobile music services. People who are 15 to 20 today will expect to buy directly with their phones and will drive this market over the next few years."
Highlights from the report include:
- Users are forecast to make at least two payment transactions per month for digital goods by 2013
- Nearly half of all mobile phone users will have bought digital goods at least once with their phones by 2013
- The two leading regions (Western Europe and Far East & China) will account for over 50 per cent of the total digital goods gross transaction market value by 2013.
Howard Wilcox continues: "Even though typical transaction sizes will remain in the $3-$5 bracket a sufficient number of users will be using their mobiles to buy music, games, tickets, infotainment and the other digital goods sufficiently often to see gross transaction value grow nearly seven fold by 2013."
The report also focuses on purchases of physical goods - ranging from gifts to household goods to electronics - via the mobile web. It provides six-year regional forecasts of mobile payments for digital and physical goods, providing data on subscriber take-up, transaction sizes and volumes as well as detailed case studies from companies pioneering in this market. Juniper Research interviewed 37 senior executives across a wide range of vendors and operators.
Whitepapers and further details of the study, 'Mobile Payment Markets: Digital & Physical Goods 2008 - 2013' can be downloaded from www.juniperresearch.com
Wireless trends
The Wireless Technology Trends Report fills the need for a truly comprehensive wireless analysis designed to serve companies in need of understanding the position of individual technologies in the context of the overall market. This report is written for companies involved in, or potentially entering, the wireless market that are interested in a general overview accompanied by detailed forecasts.
"Over the last 12 months, many of the emerging wireless technologies have begun to exploit market sectors ranging from home automation to industrial and consumer electronics," says Dr Kirsten West, Principal Analyst of WTRS. "The adoption of wireless as a pervasive technology is not a matter of "if", but when. The consumer desire for increasingly unfettered wireless connectivity is clear."
The report's key findings include:
- Ultra wideband has shifted from a nascent technology to a solidly emerging protocol underlying the certified wireless USB and Bluetooth "high speed" implementations.
- Certified wireless USB will enable wireless transfer of photographs and other media from consumer electronics devices to per¬sonal computing and output devices.
- Bluetooth has undergone an expansion campaign over the last 18 months to incorporate newly-emerging protocols such as near-field communications (NFC), Wibree, and Ultra Wideband.
- ZigBee is poised to make great strides in the next year and many new products are expected to be released to market. It is very possible that the momentum of ZigBee will finally surge in 2008.
- Wireless delivery of high definition video content is an area that has very much emerged over the last 12 months. The market for wireless delivery of high definition video promises to be large, with decisive consumer adoption once the technology has been proven in end products.
- WiMAX has become a significant competition to alternative technologies in emerging markets.
www.researchandmarkets.com/product/641244/wireless_technology_trends_report_2008
Research push
On 10 September, the European Commission officially launched 14 research projects, which are part of the FIRE initiative for Future Internet Research and Experimentation.
The launch event in the Paris City Hall was opened by Jean-Louis Missika, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of Innovation and Education, and Gilles Bloch, Director General of Research and Innovation at the French Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Research. More than 165 researchers, innovation managers, including European experts from national and European research projects, as well as representatives of European and national research funding institutions attended.
The event, which takes place in the context of the French EU Presidency, is organised by the Directorate General for Information Society and Media of the European Commission in cooperation with the EC-funded projects FIREworks and OneLab2.
The 14 FIRE projects contributing to the event are funded by the EC under the 7th Framework Programme for Research (FP7) and cover a wide range of research topics in the area of Future Internet Research and Experimentation, including advanced networking approaches to architectures and protocols, coupled with their validation in large-scale testing environments, as well as interconnection of test beds that enable experimentation on a large scale. The total planned budget of these projects is more than 58.5 million euro, of which the EC funds about 40 million euro.
www.ict-fireworks.eu
Premium content
The mobile communication market in Europe has reached a saturated and mature phase. Mobile penetration is more than 100 per cent in many western and eastern countries, even as many other countries are rapidly reaching full penetration. It is clear that the mobile industry in Europe requires investing and committing in other services and applications in order to grow effectively. Mobile premium content services and applications represent a potential source of significant revenues for the mobile industry.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan European Mobile Premium Content Markets, finds that the market (including revenues from mobile music, mobile games, mobile video/TV and mobile graphics) was worth €2.68 billion in 2007 and is estimated to reach €11.0 billion in 2012.
"Content is the new horizon for the European mobile industry," notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Saverio Romeo. "During the last three years, mobile operators have been observing a slow, but continuous decline in the average revenue per user (arpu) due to the decrease of voice and SMS arpu. New sources of revenues are needed: content is an excellent candidate."
Content types such as music, video/TV and games are leading the content growth. However, new services and applications such as mobile social networking, mobile searching and location-based services are gaining momentum. All these services, which can be defined as content tools, allow users to personalise, search and share content with other users. Business models are also shifting towards ad-based models.
"In order to exploit the variety of revenue-generated business opportunities, the industry has to face some critical challenges," cautions Romeo. "Consumers will use content on mobile devices if the industry is able to offer high-quality content with an excellent user experience at affordable prices."
www.frost.com
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