According to a new forecast issued by financial intelligence firm SNL Kagan, Mobile data revenues will increase by at an annual growth rate of 16% from $24 billion in 2007 to over $100 billion in 2017. The catlyst behind the expected growth is the recent launch of Apple’s iPhone and other smartphones. SNL Kagan’s forecast is completely in contrast sharply with the firm’s forecast that total wireless service revenues will experience barely a 5 percent CAGR over the same timeframe. According tot he firm’s estimate average data subscribers will grow at a CAGR of 5.8 percent to 249.5 million by 2017, comprising 77 percent of the total wireless subscriber base. During the same period, wireless subscriber totals will grow an average of only 2.9 percent per year.
SNL Kagan predicts wireless subscribers to reach 90 percent per capita penetration by 2017, which will lead to new data services emerging as the primary driver for revenue growth as market saturation nears. By 2017, 62 percent of all subscribers will clinch to messaging and mobile e-mail, mobile web users will grow from 18 percent of subscribers in 2007 to 52 percent of subscribers in 2017. SNL Kagan expects mobile video and TV to see a 10-year CAGR of 22.5 percent, followed by mobile music at 13.1 percent CAGR and mobile gaming at 12.7 percent CAGR.
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Telekom Austria Group raises its long-term EBITDA growth prospects for the period 2007 to 2010 and disclosed the expected impact of the recently introduced EU roaming regulation on its 2007 EBITDA. Despite the introduction of regulation for international roaming traffic by the European Commission, the company expects to compensate the effects of regulation through the forecasted increase in roaming usage, better than anticipated performance of its international mobile business and cost savings. Therefore, the Telekom Austria Group expects EBITDA to grow on average by approximately 1.7 to 2.2 percent per annum (CAGR) during the period 2007 to 2010. For the year 2007 the Telekom Austria Group anticipates to partly offset the impact from the roaming regulation through a variety of marketing and cost saving measures. Thus, the impact from roaming regulation on 2007 EBITDA is expected to be reduced to approximately EUR 20 million.
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Game developers are increasingly eyeing Bollywood production houses to create content. For instance, a recent entrant into the gaming world, FXLabs, a content developer for personal computers (PC) and console games, is in talks with at least five Bollywood production houses for creating movie-based games. By the end of the year, the company will release games based on Dhoom2.
FXLabs is simply a case in point. Hungama has launched more than 80 games based on Bollywood and Hollywood titles. And players such as Reliance Entertainment’s Zapak have been roping in celebrities around whom games are being developed.
Industry experts say that Bollywood-based games on the PC and Internet, though just five per cent, are growing fast, while Bollywood games on mobiles is approximately 15-20 per cent of the total content generated.
However, industry players caution that India as a gaming market is yet to mature and bring in the big bucks. Neeraj Roy, managing director and CEO, Hungama, said, “We were the first to introduce multi-player PC games with Don in India. Now everyone is talking about online and mobile gaming. The entire PC-based gaming in India is just about $15-16 million (Rs 60-70 crore) whereas mobile games is Rs 65-80 crore from the end user perspective.”
Roy also feels that movie-based games inherently garner maximum hits or downloads due to their popularity and a natural affinity from the users. When it comes to games, Roy is bullish about the growth of console games. With biggies such as Microsoft and Sony getting serious about the Indian market, he believes it is just matter of time for the uptake of these games.
PC gaming is expected to witness a growth in value terms from Rs 25 crore to Rs 200 crore by 2008, according to a recent report by PricewaterouseCoopers and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
The console games market is expected to witness a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 75.2 per cent over the next four years, increasing its share in the total gaming market to 30 per cent. The report adds that the demand for online games is increasing due to a growth in Internet usage.
Rohit Sharma, chief operating officer, Zapak Digital Entertainment, says: “We are in talks with 3-4 big production houses and we are primarily looking at action flicks.” Meanwhile, they have roped in Mallaika Arora, Bipasha Basu and Salman Khan to promote their games.
“The innovative thing about our approach is that the celebrity is involved in the development of the game right from the conceptual stage. We will be launching Salman Zone in the next few days. Games on Salman receive at least 40,000-50,000 page views per day,” adds Sharma.
But right pricing is a crucial element to make online games popular. That is the focus area for FXLabs. The company is also clear that pricing will be key in gaining market shares.
Tony Garcia, CEO, FXLabs said, “Though we are yet to decide on the pricing for Dhoom2, it should range between $10-15 (Rs 420-630).”
Garcia is gung-ho about the Indian gaming scenario. “Today, India is the largest untapped market for gaming. I think the potential of PC and console gaming in India is very huge,” he added.
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Converged Mobile Devices — including smartphones, PDA-style phones, and BlackBerrys — have become indispensable tools for mobile workers. An IDC study finds that although the majority of formal enterprise adoption to date has been within large enterprises, predominately in the U.S. and Canada, potential for strong growth exists among small businesses in all markets and enterprises throughout other regions of the worldFurthermore, individual business users are coming in through the backdoor of corporate networks with their own devices. IDC believes IT departments will move to remedy this and gain control of such actions. According to IDC’s latest mobile enterprise device usage forecast, worldwide shipments of corporate-liable mobile devices will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 54% to reach more than 82 million units shipped in 2011.
IDC data shows that the U.S. market accounted for 42% of enterprise shipments of converged mobile devices (CMDs) in 2006 and growth will remain strong over the next five years. IDC predicts that Western Europe will become the second-most important market in terms of enterprise mobility. The majority of Asia/Pacific and other regions of the world, including Latin America and Eastern Europe, will also experience a shift towards greater enterprise adoption. On the other hand, Japan shows signs of marginal enterprise adoption over the forecast period according to IDC as its market remains almost entirely consumer-centric.
IDC believes that growing enterprise adoption worldwide will be driven by organizations realizing the advantage of connectivity options to reduce telecom spending and enhance mobile worker productivity. IDC believes corporate purchasing of CMDs will increase as investing in mobile and wireless solutions becomes high priority for IT. Thus, IDC foresees a greater need for IT departments to exercise more control over these same devices.
“One of the key drivers for the expected growth in enterprise adoption of CMDs lies in the power to use these devices, beyond basic telephony, to access corporate email, the Internet/Intranet, and securely link to corporate databases,” says Sean Ryan, research analyst for IDC’s Mobile Enterprise Devices program. “As CMDs become more tightly coupled with enterprise networks, IT mobility initiatives will trend towards standardization, security, and control — resulting in enterprise procurement of such devices.”
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Mobile data revenues to reach $100 billion by 2017 - Report
