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July 02, 2009
Report: Developing Nations Drive Asian Mobile Growth
By Anuradha Shukla, TMCnet Contributor
A recent report from Strategy Analytics indicates that developing nations like India, China, Bangladesh and Indonesia, will generate more than 60 percent of the mobile service revenues in the Asia Pacific region in 2014.
The report titled “Asia Mobile Market Forecast, 2009-2014,” shows that service revenue will grow around 7 percent annually in emerging Asian markets. But the revenue will remain essentially flat in the developed countries of that region.
According to Tom Elliott, director of EMCS at Strategy Analytics (News - Alert), the developed nations such as Japan and South Korea will continue introducing innovative services and devices. He said in a statement that the real growth in subscriptions and revenues will come from new users signing up for basic services in countries like India, China and Pakistan.
Strategy Analytics report said that many new users will sign up from rural areas and small towns. Mobile operators are turning towards countryside for growth as major cities are approaching saturation. Mobile operators in some countries like Cambodia have no choice, but to focus on rural customers as 80 percent of the population is in the rural region.
Phil Kendall, director of the Wireless Networks Strategies service, said in a statement that it is expensive to build out networks and provide support outside of the cities. But the operators have no choice as new customers are present in this area only.
“Operators will have to develop ways to serve these markets profitably,” Kendall said.
A recent report from ABI research, as reported by TMCnet, indicates that the Asia Pacific region has been hit by recession. A large portion of the data revenues of regional operators come from content downloads, and if the recession gets extended, it will significantly impact these products.
ABI says that such impacts due to recession can be reduced through appropriate messaging and offer management.
Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anuradha’s article, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Amy Tierney
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