2012 Mobile Industry Predictions Survey January 3, 2012
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, ARPU, Applications, BRIC, CTIA, Carnival of Mobilists, Carriers, Connected Devices, Disruption, Enterprise Mobility, European Wireless Market, IP Strategy, Indian Wireless Market, Infrastructure, Intellectual Property, Japan Wireless Market, Location Based Services, M&A, Mergers and Acquisitions, Messaging, Microsoft Mobile, Middleware, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Breakfast Series, Mobile Cloud Computing, Mobile Commerce, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Future, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile Gaming, Mobile Payments, Mobile Search, Mobile Traffic, Networks, Patent Strategies, Privacy, Smart Phones, Speaking Engagements, Speech Recognition, US Wireless Market, Wi-Fi, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , 9 comments2012 Mobile Industry Predictions Survey
http://www.chetansharma.com/MobilePredictions2012.htm
First things first. From all of us at Chetan Sharma Consulting, we wish you and yours a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2012. My thanks to all who participated in our 2012 Mobile Predictions Annual Survey. It gives our community an insider’s view of trends.
2011 was a terrific year for the mobile industry. With all its ups and down, consumers embraced devices, applications, services, and technology with more gusto than ever before. In the waning hours of 2011, we crossed the 6 billion subscriptions milestone. While the first billion took 19 years, this last billion only took 15 months.
Smartphones are selling like hot cakes. We estimate that by the end of Q4 2011, over 60% of the devices sold in the US were smartphones and over 30% of the global sales were for the evolved brethren of the primordial featurephones. Sparked by insatiable consumer demand for mobile data, LTE and HSPA+ networks are sprouting all over the planet with US leading the charge for broadband deployment.
Our annual survey is a way for us to engage our community on the trends for the next year. We put some of the pressing questions to our colleagues and industry leaders. We are able to glean some valuable insights from their choices and comments, some tangible shifts, and get a sense of what’s to come. Executives, developers, and insiders (n=150) from leading mobile companies and startups from across the value chain and around the world participated to help see what 2012 might bring to keep us on our toes. What makes this survey unique is that it draws upon the collective wisdom of folks who are at the center of the mobile evolution.
Fifteen names were randomly drawn for the limited edition of the Mobile Future Forward 2011 book. The winners are:
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Tor Bjorn Minde, Head of Ericsson Labs, Ericsson
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Sunder Somasundaram, Industry Solutions Practice Director, AT&T
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C. Enrique Ortiz, Mobile Technologist, About Mobility
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Russell Buckley, CMO, Eagle Eye
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Marianne Marck, VP – Engineering, Starbucks
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John Foster, President, ZED USA
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Angel Luis Saez, Sr. Director, Orange Spain
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Dilip Mistry, Senior Director, Microsoft Asia
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Phyllis Reuther, Advanced Analytics Lab, Sprint
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Gene Keenan, VP of Mobile, Isobar
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Elizabeth Day, Director of Finance, Trilogy International
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Alan Cole, Research Staff Member, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
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X J Wang, VP – GM China, Vesta Corp
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Michelle Lee, Director, SK Telecom
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Hemant Chandak, Sr. Analyst, Cisco Systems
Thanks again to everyone who contributed. We will be calling on you again next year. It has been a terrific year for us at Chetan Sharma Consulting and we are looking forward to an engaging and productive 2012.
Be well, do good work, and stay in touch.
Thanks and with warm wishes,
Your feedback is always welcome.
Thanks
Chetan Sharma
Now onto the 2012 Mobile Industry Predictions Survey Results.
1. What was most newsworthy in Mobile 2011?
Android had a spectacular rise in 2011 around the globe. Android OEMs collectively shipped the most number of devices and while margins shrank, they were able to put a united front to iOS. 2011 will always be remembered for the passing away of the industry transformer Steve Jobs. His work directly or indirectly touched billions of souls around the planet, many times over – something rarest of human beings are able to achieve in their life time. Regulatory tussles and significant increase in IP disputes also occupied the headlines. Amazon announced its intention for the mobile space with the launch of Kindle Fire.
2. What will be the biggest mobile stories of 2012?
As we look towards 2012, our panel voted for the continued growth of mobile data as the biggest story followed by Amazon’s entry into the mobile space. Some key questions for the year are: Will Microsoft/Nokia devices will make any meaningful progress? Will RIM survive the year? How does Google manage the fragmentation, decline in margins (for the OEMs), and the IP issues? Will any high-profile security and privacy mishaps lead to more regulatory entanglements? Facebook IPO and its mobile ambitions? How do operators manage the data demand? Which M&As will capture industry’s attention? Will Apple continue to dominate on both smartphone and tablet front? What does Apple do with mobile payments? and much more. Clearly, it is going to be a terrific year.
3. Who will be the most open player in the mobile ecosystem in 2012?
File this in the “perception is reality” folder. Despite all the criticism, Google has maintained its strong position as the most open player in the mobile industry.
4. What applications will define 4G?
Still looking for a killer-4G app? Video, cloud computing, and access will continue to drive 4G demand and growth.
5. What will be the breakthrough category in mobile in 2012?
For a second year in a row, the panel voted for mobile payments and mobile commerce as the top two category that will find their voice. Mobile advertising has become mainstream so it lost its ranking in the top 3.
6. What will be the most popular consumer mobile applications in 2012?
Apps preferences vary by regions depending on a whole range of factors. Messaging and Commerce are the top two categories for the developing world while consumers in the developed nations are likely to gravitate towards commerce and location based services.
7. Which will be the most dominant (unit sales) tablet platform in 2 years?
iOS and Android will dominate the tablet landscape for the next 24 months. A late entry by Windows 8 tablets could make a dent but don’t count on it.
8. Who will make the biggest mobile acquisition in 2012?
2011 had its fair share of block-buster acquisitions, some successful while others were not. Our panel expects Microsoft and Google to continue making the biggest acquisitions.
9. How will the "Apps vs. Mobile Web" debate shape up in 2012?
It seems like the pendulum is swinging towards the mobile web though hybrid solutions are likely to stay with us for a long time.
10. Who will define the mobile payment/commerce space?
The financial companies safely locked in the mobile payments space and while the value chain is fairly complicated and definition confusion abounds, the likes of Visa, Operators and Google will continue to drive the payments/commerce space.
11. Which solutions will gain the most traction for managing mobile data broadband consumption?
Managing data growth and margins drives all strategies at mobile operators these days which in turns drives the value chain. 4G, tiered pricing, and mobile offload continue to be the top solutions if one has the spectrum that is.
12. Which category will generate the most mobile data revenue in 2012?
Messaging, access, apps, and advertising are the four broad categories that drive mobile data revenues around the world. The developing markets rely on messaging while the developed markets are increasingly looking to access as their dominant form of revenue generation.
13. What will help mobile cloud computing gain traction in 2012?
Mobile cloud computing will continue to be defined by enterprise, storage, and media needs.
14. Which enterprise segment will mobile impact the most?
Best buy is becoming the next Circuit City. Other retailers will follow unless they can successful reinvent themselves. Health is more regulatory driven so the progress will be slow though it is ripe for a complete overhaul and developing nations are moving much faster in this space.
15. What will be the dominant revenue model for apps in 2012?
In-app revenue model made good strides in 2011 but the combination of the various available revenue models will be the norm for most application developers.
16. What mode of mobile payments will get traction in North America and Western Europe in 2012?
2011 was the year to set the ground work for growth in the mobile payments space. Given the investment and focus, we are likely to see more movement and consumer involvement in 2012 with proximity based solutions and commerce of physical goods on mobile.
17. What will be the most successful non-mobile-phone category in 2012?
Tablets dominate. Period.
18. Which of the following are likely to happen in the near future?
The is a significant shift in computing taking place right in front of our eyes wherein tablets are replacing laptops and even desktops in the enterprise. European operators have been experiencing tough times while some of the Asian operators are flush with cash, they might make their move in 2012 though regulatory hurdles might prove to be an issue. 33% of the nations will have elections in 2012, maybe which will move mobile voting to the forefront in some nations. Our panel thought there is a better chance of humans discovering water on another planet than rise of another significant mobile OS.
19. Which areas will feel the most impact from Regulators in 2012?
Net-neutrality and market competitiveness will keep the regulators busy in 2012.
20. Who was the mobile person of the year?
Clearly, Steve Jobs was an easy choice but who will replace him 2012? Jeff Bezos has an early lead followed by Andy Rubin and Mark Zuckerberg. Angry Birds representing the developer community will be in for another terrific year. Other honorable mentions were Tim Cook, Paul Jacobs, Sanjiv Ahuja, Dan Hesse, and Glenn Lurie.
A lot to look forward to in the New Year. My thanks to all who participated and we hope you found it useful as you embark on your journey for a successful 2012.
We will be keeping a close eye on the trends in the wireless data sector in our blog, twitter feeds, future research reports, and articles. The next US Wireless Data Market update will be released in Feb 2012. The next Global Wireless Data Market update will be issued in Apr 2012.
Disclaimer: Some of the companies mentioned in this survey are our clients.
New Paper: Managing Growth and Profits of Connected Devices September 6, 2011
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, Connected Devices, Devices, Disruption, Mobile Applications, Mobile Future Forward, Smart Phones, US Wireless Market, Wi-Fi, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , add a comment
http://www.chetansharma.com/connecteddevices.htm
Paper is sponsored by Synchronoss Technologies
Mobile industry is the most dynamic global industry today. The connected mobile universe touches more than 4.5 billion consumers on the planet and these devices have effectively become an integral part of our daily lives. The pace of innovation and product introduction has also accelerated. The lifecycle of mobile network technologies, devices, applications is shrinking rapidly. While the 1G cycle lasted almost 20 years, the 2G cycle shrank to approximately 15 years. Though many countries are still launching 3G, the expected span for 3G in the US is likely to be 10 years. Similarly, on the device front, the average replacement cycles have decreased from over 24 months to less than 12 months in many mobile markets and demographic segments.
Mobility is also getting ingrained in the everyday objects, which make up for a fundamental reassessment of how things are done across industries in almost every region of the world. It is not just the phones and the data cards that are being enabled by the broadband connectivity but also the everyday electronic devices such as the tablets, eReaders, automobiles, picture frames, and cameras.
It is fairly apparent that mobile data is driving the growth in most developed nations. While voice is a stronger component in the developing nations today, it is the demand for mobile data and the lure of data revenues that is even forcing countries like China and India to embrace 4G at a much faster pace than they did 3G. The impact of data services is reflected in the operator financials. In Japan, Softbank became the first major operator to have more revenues come from data than voice. Others are following. In the US, over 37% of the revenues are coming from data services and the data revenues will account for over 50% of the revenues by early 2013.
The changing dynamics of the industry poses some serious questions about the supply-chain, product and service introduction cycles for the operators and the OEMs, and the management of the cost structure and margins of the business. If these elements are not effectively managed, both the competitiveness and the ROI of the products will be severely impacted. Solutions to these problems must be repeatable, future-proof and –upgradeable, and cost effective, else the solutions won’t scale at the pace needed to manage the growth.
Participants in the ecosystem must identify cost reduction opportunities and streamline operations to take out limitations driven by legacy and drive convenience and seamless user experience for the consumer. Only then can the product introductions be sped up and the desire to maximize profits come to fruition. In this paper, we look at the issues and opportunities around connected devices and the solutions and strategies that will make the ecosystem more vibrant, scalable and sustainable.
Download the paper (1MB)
Of course, we will be discussing this topic in great detail at the Mobile Future Forward summit next week where the central theme is “Connected Universe. Unlimited Opportunities” I will be interviewing Glenn Lurie, President AT&T and Danny Bowman, President, Sprint on this very subject.
Your feedback is always welcome.
Thanks.
Chetan Sharma
Disclaimer: Some of the companies mentioned in this paper are our clients.
US Wireless Market Update Q2 2011 August 18, 2011
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, Applications, Connected Devices, Enterprise Mobility, IP, IP Strategy, Intellectual Property, Mergers and Acquisitions, Mobile Applications, Mobile Cloud Computing, Mobile Commerce, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile Payments, Patent Strategy, US Wireless Market, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , 1 comment so far
http://www.chetansharma.com/usmarketupdateq22011.htm
US Mobile Data Market Update Q1 2011
Summary
If Confucius was alive, he would have said, “We live in interesting times.” 2011 is proving to be the blockbuster deal year. After Microsoft/Nokia, AT&T/T-Mobile, Microsoft/Skype, Google made the $4*π billion play for Motorola and raised the stakes in the mobile ecosystem warfare. The ecosystem has entered into a phase that Sun Tzu and Chanakya would have loved to operate in.
In other news, the US wireless data market grew 5% Q/Q and 22% Y/Y to reach $16.2B in mobile data service revenues in Q2 2011 and is on course to increase Y/Y by 22% to $67B in 2011.
US unseated Philippines as the king of TXT messaging with almost 664 messages/sub/month. Philippines is seeing a sharp decline in per user messaging thanks to Facebook and app messaging.
Apple overtook Nokia as the dominant smartphone OEM though Samsung is right behind and is likely to overtake Apple later this year. However, Apple will continue to dominate profit share for the foreseeable future.
Smartphones continued to be sold at a brisk pace accounting for 55% of the devices sold in Q2 2011. Operators are averaging 70% of their postpaid sales as smartphones with Android dominating though iPhone leads in mindshare. The featurephone as a device species is on the verge of extinction. By Christmas, 90% of the US postpaid device sales could be smartphones.
Platform Moves
I am a Platform, therefore I am. Everything and everyone wants to be a platform that developers can build upon. The big 4 – Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon are having good success with frequent upgrades and rollouts. Consumers gravitate towards ecOSystems and the richness of the product offerings not specific OSes. OS is just a means to an end. However, the more developers you get excited about the platform, the more the ecosystem thrives and it becomes a virtuous circle. Companies left without the dancing partners need to ensure that they are not the one left standing when the music stops.
While a lot of attention has been focused on Apple and Google skirmishes, Amazon has been quietly tinkering with some interesting products – advertising enabled Kindle, the upcoming tablets and handsets, Android based appstores, mobile payments, distribution giant, cloud, and so on and so forth. Facebook with its nearly 800M friends can unleash several “billion dollar” features that can shake up different mobile microcosms.
In the meantime, Microsoft is trying to find a way to get back into the mobile market. Microsoft’s Xbox franchise gives it something unique and compelling. Their success might depend on how well they are able to integrate and tell a compelling story to the consumers. The upcoming Christmas quarter will be a critical test. RIM and HP don’t have much of an ecosystem to matter in the larger scheme of things. They can be successful in their own ways but attaining a leadership position remains significantly challenging.
AT&T/T-Mobile merger
AT&T’s proposed merger of T-Mobile continued to keep the regulators busy for the quarter. Earlier this year, we published a first of its kind in-depth study on competition in mobile markets -“Competition and the Evolution of Mobile Markets - A Study of Competition in Global Mobile Markets”. The paper presents analysis and an in-depth analytical framework to study the competitive landscape in the global mobile markets. Our research shows that an effective equilibrium point for the top three market share in a given country to be around 46%:29%:18% respectively. We expect that once all is said and done, we will end up in the vicinity of this equation.
Patent Warfare
On the eve of Android launch, I mentioned to one of the journalist to watch for some IP fireworks in about 3 years. For those of us who have been deeply involved in the mobile IP space, the IP events of 2011 have been largely predictable though the valuations have gone through the roof.
Over the last 15 years, I have seen patents and IP in the mobile space from all angles from authoring patents to testifying in ITC cases and pretty much everything in between. In the last six months, patents have become an essential tool for competitive strategy in the mobile device space. See our analysis on the major players with the number of granted patents in Europe and US (slide 13).
To paraphrase the oracle of Omaha, “Only when the litigation tide comes in do you discover who’s been swimming without protection.”
Mobile is changing the way we spend
It is very clear that mobile will be at the center of human evolution for years to come. Mobile collapses time and distance and as such impacts every facet of our lives. While we have come to know the mobile phone as a communications device, their role in our daily lives has been expanding. From checking emails, paying for tickets, sending money transfers, taking pictures of your kids, watching soccer World Cup live, checking commodity pricing, to emergency response to mHealth (mobile Health), mobile devices have become an essential tool to help us navigate our day.
Mobile also plays a key role in how we go about the most basic transaction in a given day that keeps the economy humming – spend. We discussed this and more in the paper “How Mobile Will Change The Way We Spend” that was released earlier this month.
What to expect in the coming months?
All this has setup an absolutely fascinating rest of the year in the communication/computing industry. Convergence is everywhere and is leading to a fundamental reset of the value chains and ecosystems. We are likely to see a few more blockbuster marriage proposals before the year is out.
We are going to be discussing the ins and outs of how the industry is going to evolve in the next decade in our Sept 12th mobile thought leadership summit – Mobile Future Forward which is bringing exceptional industry thought-leaders, inventors, and doers to brainstorm, discuss, and debate what’s next.
Hope you can join us.
As usual, we will be keeping a very close eye on the micro- and macro-trends and reporting on the market on a regular basis in various private and public settings.
Against this backdrop, the analysis of the Q2 2011 US wireless data market is:
Service Revenues
- The US Wireless data service revenues grew 5% Q/Q and 22% Y/Y to $16.2B in Q2 2011. The mobile data services revenues for the US market are on track to reach $67B in 2011.
- Verizon and AT&T had a good mobile data quarter accounting for 77% of the increase in data revenues in Q2 2011.
- For the quarter, AT&T and Verizon accounted for 69% of the market data services revenues and 62% of the subscription base.
- Verizon maintained its #1 ranking just edging past NTT DoCoMo who came in at number two with $5.77B in data revenues for the quarter. AT&T maintained its #3 position with $5.4B in data revenues. Sprint and T-Mobile maintained their #6 and #8 rank in the top 10 mobile data operators list for Q2 2011. The proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile will make AT&T #1 by a distance and place 20% of the global mobile data revenues in the hands of the top two US operators. AT&T and Verizon will become the #1 and #2 players respectively.
ARPU
- The Overall ARPU increased by $0.41. Average voice ARPU declined by $0.48 while the average data ARPU grew by $0.89 or 5% Q/Q.
- The average industry percentage contribution of data to overall ARPU was 36.3% in Q2 2011 and is likely to touch 40% by year’s end. Verizon is likely to be the first to eclipse the 40% mark with AT&T a close second. (NTT DoCoMo became the second major operator to go past the 50% mark this quarter (if we don’t include Philippines) and Japan as a market follows Philippines in going past the 50% mark).
- Verizon and Sprint were neck-and-neck in data ARPU followed by AT&T. In terms of % contribution, all the top three operators exceeded the 35% mark. T-Mobile ended the quarter with almost 30% of its revenue coming from the data services.
- We expect data revenues to exceed voice revenues in the US market in early 2013.
Subscribers
- Helped by the growth in connected devices, the overall net-adds increased by 4.4M with Verizon accounting for almost 50% of the growth.
- For the seventh straight quarter, AT&T reported more net-adds from connected devices than postpaid subs. AT&T now accounts for 43% of connected devices in the US (w/ cellular subscription of some sort).
- Overall, AT&T has 43% of the connected device share of the market. The connected device segment growth slowed down to 3% Q/Q but is still up 37% Y/Y.
- Sprint continued on its comeback trail by adding more than a million subscriptions for the third straight quarter, first time it has done it since Q2 2005.
- T-Mobile however continues to be sandwiched between the top three and the next three and hasn’t been able to add postpaid subs for five straight quarters. The net-adds declined for third straight quarter.
Applications and Services
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US unseated Philippines as the king of TXT messaging with almost 664 messages/sub/month compared to Philippines which is seeing a sharp decline in per user messaging due to IP messaging. Some of the European operators are also experiencing the pain of declining SMS usage.
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While the percentage share of the data revenues is declining for messaging, the revenue growth stays strong with almost $5B in revenues.
- The market is finally starting to see activity in the mobile commerce and payment services as well as in various industry verticals like healthcare, retail, and education.
- Q2 2011 also saw tremendous activity in the mobile commerce and payments space with lot of announcements from the operators, Internet players, and startups as well as the retailers and the ecommerce players. All are vying for a piece of the mobile wallet. Much more to come in the next 12 months.
Handsets
- Smartphones continued to be sold at a brisk pace accounting for 55% of the devices sold in Q2 2011. Operators are averaging 70% of their postpaid sales as smartphones with Android dominating though iPhone leads in mindshare.
- For a first time in recent memory, Nokia sold less than 100M devices in a quarter and its marketshare shrank to 22% from a once dominant position of almost 40%.
- Apple unseated Nokia as the king of the smartphone hill but Samsung is right behind and is likely to overtake Apple later this year.
- 35% of all smartphones being sold globally are being sold in the US.
- Last quarter, smartphones sales exceeded the 50% mark. The % share jumped to 55% in Q2 2011. Smartphones now account for 80% revenue of all phones sold in the US.
- In the vertical vs. horizontal platform battle, the ecosystem is shifting towards horizontal domination in the near-term (units sold) while a majority of the profits reside in the vertical column.
- 85% of the tablets use WiFi only (some have inactivated cellular chipset) meaning the operator channel is not a necessary distribution channel. Operators who start to bundle multiple devices by single data plans and data buckets are going to see a better yield in this category.
- While the definition of 4G stays muddled, Sprint added 1.7M WiMax subs and Verizon incremented their LTE count by 1.2M.
Mobile Data Growth
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The mobile data consumption continues unabated. We expect per MB usage in the US to reach 675 MB by the end of 2011 just behind Sweden which is likely to end up at 760 MB.
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While the spectrum debate rages on, in addition to the network and backhaul upgrades, policy management and data offload have emerged as top two solutions that operators deploying around the world. Signaling management solutions like Diameter routing are also getting good traction. However, a long-term video solution is still elusive. As we have been saying in our Yottabyte series of research papers, a comprehensive solution strategy is needed to effectively manage margins/bit.
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We will have the 3rd edition of our “Managing Growth and Profits in the Yottabyte Era”research out later this year. We will also be discussing this subject in great detail at our Mobile Future Forward summit with some of the most influential voices in the space.
Global Update
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Race to a billion - India went past 850M in Q2 2011 subs and China went past 900M. By mid 2012 both India and China will have more than a billion subscriptions.
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China Mobile crossed the 600M subscription mark however its 3G introduction has had a tepid response thus and its 4G strategy remains in flux.
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For more details, please see our Global Mobile Wireless Market Update released in July 2011.
Mobile Future Forward
We will be discussing the global mobile ecosystem – the challenges and the opportunities at our annual mobile thought-leadership summit – Mobile Future Forward - brought to you in partnership with our terrific partners – Qualcomm, Millennial Media, Real Networks, AT&T Interactive, Synchronoss Technologies, OpenMarket, Ericsson, and Openwave. Hope to see you in Seattle on Sept 12th.
Some of the distinguished guests include:
Abhi Ingle, VP, AT&T; Biju Nair, Chief Strategy Officer, Synchronoss Technologies; Bob Borchers, Partner, Opus Capital; Bobby Morrison, President – PNW, Verizon Wireless; Braxton Woodham, Head of Product Development, AVOS; Danny Bowman, President, Sprint; David Messenger, EVP, Head of Online/Mobile, American Express; Gibu Thomas, SVP – Mobile Walmart; Erik Moremo, SVP, FOX; Glenn Lurie, President, Emerging Devices, Resale & Partnerships, AT&T Mobility; Hank Skorny, CSO, Real Networks; Jana Messerschmidt, Sr. Director, Twitter; Jay Emmet, GM, OpenMarket; Jason MacKenzie, President, Global Sales and Marketing, HTC; Jerry Batt, CIO, PulteGroup; Ken Denman, CEO, Openwave; Ken Wirth, President, Alcatel-Lucent Wireless; Kris Rinne, SVP - Networks/Architecture, AT&T; Mark Rolston, Chief Creative Officer, Frog Design; Manoj Leelanivas, EVP & GM, Juniper Networks; Michael Wolf, VP, GigaOM; Mikael Back, VP – Products, Ericsson; Naoki Aoyagi, CEO, GREE USA; Paul Palmieri, CEO, Millennial Media; Rob Glaser, Partner, Accel; Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO, LightSquared; Stephen Bye, CTO, Sprint; Steve Mollenkopf, EVP/Group President, Qualcomm; Suja Chandrasekaran, CIO, Timberland; Will Hsu, CPO, AT&T Interactive.
More information at http://www.mobilefutureforward.com
Your feedback is always welcome.
Thanks.
Chetan Sharma
We will be keeping a close eye on the trends in the wireless data sector in our blog, twitter feeds, future research reports, and articles. The next US Wireless Data Market update will be released in Nov 2011. The next Global Wireless Data Market update will be issued in Apr 2012.
Disclaimer: Some of the companies mentioned in this paper are our clients.
New Paper - How Mobile Will Change The Way We Spend – A Mobile Future Forward Paper August 5, 2011
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, CTIA, Connected Devices, Enterprise Mobility, European Wireless Market, Indian Wireless Market, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Breakfast Series, Mobile Cloud Computing, Mobile Commerce, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile Payments, Mobile Search, US Wireless Market, Wi-Fi, WiMax, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , 1 comment so farHow Mobile Will Change The Way We Spend
A Mobile Future Forward Paper
The Mobile Future Forward 2011 Book will contain 18 essays from thought-leaders around the globe and is going to be distributed exclusively to the Mobile Future Forward attendees on Sept 12th. The book is published by FutureText, UK.
The essays from the Mobile Future Forward speakers and industry luminaries are:
1. How Mobile Will Change The Way We Spend – Chetan Sharma, President, Chetan Sharma Consulting
2. The Mobile Cloud Connected Enterprise – Abhi Ingle, VP, Advanced Mobility Solutions, AT&T
3. Mobile and Health Possibilities – Subba Rao, CEO, Razi Health
4. Buying a Mobile Device in 2014 – Frank Meehan, CEO, INQMobile
5. Surviving and Thriving in the Age of Mobile Internet – An MNO Game Plan – Manoj Leelanivas, SVP and GM, Juniper Networks
6. Mobile Future Forward Interview with Steve Elfman – President, Sprint Nextel
7. Is Mobile Local Advertising Finally Poised to Take Off? – William Hsu, SVP and CPO, AT&T Interactive
8. Implications of a Connected Society – Danny Bowman, President, Sprint Nextel
9. Big Data and Mobile – Braxton Woodham, Head of Engineering, AVOS
10. Broadband for All – Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO, LightSquared
11. Wireless Competition and Innovation – Stephen Bye, CTO, Sprint Nextel
12. The Future of the Personal Information Economy: Enabling Success Across the Mobile Ecosystem – Ken Denman, CEO, Openwave
13. T-Commerce – Carving Out and Extending E-Commerce – Ramneek Bhasin, SVP and GM, TheFind
14. The Case for Building a Mobile Broadcast Content Delivery Network – The Critical Piece to Fulfilling Mobile Data Demands of the Future – Erik Moreno, SVP, FOX Network
15. Connected Devices – Redefining the Channel – Biju Nair, Chief Strategy Officer, Synchronoss Technologies
16. How Mobile Can Turn Retailers Into Media Companies – Dale Nitschke, CEO, Ovative Group
17. The Future of (Mobile) Communications – Carlos Domingo, CEO, Telefonica R&D
18. Competition and the Evolution of Mobile Markets – Chetan Sharma, President, Chetan Sharma Consulting
Download (http://www.mobilefutureforward.com and click on the White paper image)
Executive Summary
In his 1943 paper titled “A Theory of Human Motivation”, the famed philosopher Abraham Maslow theorized his observations of human needs and curiosities. His pyramid came to depict the human hierarchy of needs. If we map the physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization needs onto how much we spend as a community, it correlates rather well. As you would expect, human spending behavior is tightly tied to the basic needs. The amount of money we spend on these basic needs might vary by demographics or region but in aggregate, we tend to spend the most for the things that are the bottom of the pyramid – shelter, food, and water.
Over time, entrepreneurs have used technology to drive fundamental changes in consumer behavior for e.g. Microsoft with personal computers, Google with search, Apple with devices, Facebook with social connections. Of course, the web of interconnection, the various vertical industries that map against the human needs is very complex and as new technology cycles come into play, inventors get busy with enhancing performance sometimes by manifold to keep up with the insatiable demand and appetite to do more.
It is very clear that mobile will be at the center of human evolution for years to come. Mobile collapses time and distance and as such impacts every facet of our lives. While we have come to know the mobile phone as a communications device, their role in our daily lives has been expanding. From checking emails, paying for tickets, sending money transfers, taking pictures of your kids, watching soccer World Cup live, checking commodity pricing, to emergency response to mHealth (mobile Health), mobile devices have become an essential tool to help us navigate our day. As we alluded to earlier, it is not just the traditional phones that have cellular connection these days; we are slowly but surely moving into an era where a majority of electronic devices from small tags to giant billboards will have a communication channel that both machines and humans can interact with.
Mobile also plays a key role in how we go about the most basic transaction in a given day that keeps the economy humming – spend.
In this paper, we will take a look at how the connected universe of devices and sensors are going to impact the way we spend and how all this creates new opportunities to meet the basic human needs.
Your feedback is always welcome.
Thanks
Chetan
Mobile Future Forward – Connected Universe. Unlimited Opportunities July 27, 2011
Posted by chetan in : 4G, AORTA, Applications, Connected Devices, Mobile Applications, Mobile Cloud Computing, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Future Forward, US Wireless Market, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , add a commentThe theme of Mobile Future Forward this year is Connected Universe. Unlimited Opportunities. As a long time reader, you know the very foundation of this blog is depicted in its name – AORTA – Always On Real-Time Access. Since my early days in the mobile world, I longed for a time when connectivity became ubiquitous. In fact, even in my early books in 2000 (Wireless Internet Enterprise Applications) and 2002 (Wireless Data Services with Dr. Yasuhisa Nakamura, CTO, NTT DoCoMo), I had extensively talked about the connected universe. We are finally approaching that vision. To talk about this in more depth, we have the two distinguished leaders who are at the center of it all – Glenn Lurie, President – Emerging Devices, Resale & Partnership at AT&T Mobility and Danny Bowman, President – Connected Devices at Sprint.
Connected Universe. Unlimited Opportunities.
The connected devices segment is the fastest growing category of the market and is also the most profitable due to higher margins. Connected devices are impacting a rethink in virtually all key verticals – healthcare, housing, travel, entertainment, communication, energy, and others. It is also disrupting the traditional value chains and revenue models. Which segments are yielding the highest ROI? Does computing fundamentally change forever or are connected devices just a part of the PC hub? How does M2M fit into the world of smartphones and tablets? How are businesses and solution providers taking advantage of the growing connected universe? What’s most important for the consumer and what are their expectations on design, pricing, and connectivity? From connected cars to wireless pill bottles, our world is going to change forever. Meet the leaders who are shaping the growing connected devices ecosystem to get insights that will inform your strategy and decide your future revenue streams.
Glenn Lurie, President - Emerging Devices, Resale & Partnerships , AT&T Mobility
Danny Bowman, President – Connected Devices, Sprint
State of the Global Mobile Industry – Half Yearly Assessment 2011 July 7, 2011
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, ARPU, BRIC, Carriers, Connected Devices, Devices, Enterprise Mobility, European Wireless Market, IP, IP Strategy, Indian Wireless Market, Infrastructure, Intellectual Property, Japan Wireless Market, Location Based Services, Mergers and Acquisitions, Microsoft Mobile, Middleware, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Cloud Computing, Mobile Commerce, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Event, Mobile Future, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile Gaming, Mobile Payments, Mobile Search, Mobile Traffic, Mobile Usability, Mobile Users, Mobile Wallet, Networks, Partnership, Patent Strategies, Patent Strategy, Patents, Privacy, Smart Phones, Speaking Engagements, Speech Recognition, Student Paper Contest, US Wireless Market, Wi-Fi, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , 6 comments
http://www.chetansharma.com/globalmobileupdate1H2011.htm
The big picture
The global mobile industry is the most vibrant and fastest growing industry. We expect the total revenue in the industry to touch approximately $1.3 Trillion in 2011 with mobile data representing 24% of the mix. Global Mobile Data revenues are expected to eclipse $300 Billion for the first time in 2011. It is also the first year in which non-messaging data revenues will make up the majority of the overall global data revenues at 53%.
We expect the total number of subscriptions to exceed 6 billion by the end of 2011. The first 1 billion took over 20 years and this last one is going to take only 15 months. The primary growth drivers are India and China which are cumulatively adding 75M new subs every quarter. Indian and China are also entangled in the race to the billion. At the end of Q2 2011, China was ahead by 50M but India is adding subscriptions at faster rate and is likely to eclipse China before Q2 2012. By then, both nations are expected to exceed 1 Billion in total subscriptions making up 31% of the global subscriptions.
In Q1 2011, US became the first major market to exceed the 50% mark in smartphone sales. The global figure stands at approximately 26%. Some operators expect 90% of their devices sales to be smartphones by the end of the year. In terms of the actual smartphone penetration, we expect the US market to eclipse the 50% mark in 2012.
China leads in the number of subs but US dominates in both total and data revenue. A number of emerging nations are now in top 10 – Brazil, India, Russia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Mexico while once dominant – Korea, UK, Italy, Germany have dropped off or slipped in rankings.
The number of mobile operators with more than $1B in data revenues will increase to 47 in 2011. This number was only at 13 in 2005.
Japan continues to be the leader in mobile data with NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, and Softbank Japan ahead of the pack in terms of mobile data revenue and data as a % of total ARPU. In 2011, it became the first major market to have more than 50% of its mobile revenue from data services. Next, Australia and the US have made good inroads in the last two years. In fact, if we look at the overall data revenue, US is much further ahead than any nation due to the size of the market.
While India has the highest subscriber growth rate in the world right now, the revenue generating opportunity remain down right anemic compared to other major markets with average dropping down to $3.50 in overall ARPU. Even with significant subscriber base, there is going to be a general lack of opportunity in the market for the next couple of years relative to other markets.
Mobile Trends for 2011
1.Total Global Subscriptions to hit 6 Billion
–India and China racing to a billion a piece
2.Total Global Mobile Revenues to hit $1.3 Trillion, almost 2% of Global GDP
–Top 10 operators control 43% of the global mobile revenues
3.Total Global Mobile Data Revenues to eclipse $300 Billion
–Non-messaging data now owns 53% of the global mobile data revenues
4.Mobile Devices are now exceeding traditional computers in unit sales + revenue
–Majority of the device sales in the US are now smartphones. Device Replacement is shrinking
5.Mobile Broadband (4G) is being deployed at a faster rate than previous generations
–Over 1 Billion broadband connections by 2011
6.Global Mobile Apps revenue has shifted to off-deck
–The decline is directly proportional to the increase in smartphone penetration by region
7.All major markets are consolidating with the top 3 players at 85% of the market
–Regulators will have to be more prudent and proactive about managing competitiveness and growth
8.Mobile Data Traffic will be 95% of the global mobile traffic by 2015
–Many countries are facing spectrum exhaust in the next 5 years
9.Connected device segment is growing at the fastest pace
–Operators will have to quickly adapt their strategies to stay relevant in this segment
10.Several multi-billion dollar opportunity segments are emerging
–Mobile Advertising, Mobile Commerce, Mobile Wellness, Mobile Games, and Mobile Cloud Computing to name a few
11.Mobile Ecosystem has become very dynamic and unpredictable
–Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook have become the most important revenue generating mobile platforms
12. There will be more changes in the next 10 years than in the previous 100
– The value chains will keep disrupting every 12-24 months by the new players and business models
13. Intellectual Property has become a key component of long-term product strategy
– Top 20 control 1/3rd of the overall mobile patent pool
Devices
Apple has had the tablet space to itself. Thus far the response from the competitors has been tepid esp. on the pricing dimension. Apple has had such a mastery over the supply-chain and months ahead of the competition that by the time they figure out details, Apple already locks up the pricing advantage for the cycle. OEMs try to catch-up on the features but can’t do on the margins. OEMs can grow the pie by bringing products at a better price points that helps attract different demographics to the mix. Microsoft can make good inroads into the space with its Win8 tablet release in 2012 but it will be again in a catch-up mode as the iOS ecosystem will be even more robust by then. The cheaper Android tablets will do well in the market. As expected, tablets will pretty much eliminate the need for netbooks and are starting to eat into the desktop/laptop revenue.
Nokia and RIM are under severe market scrutiny as investors and developers leave in droves. Lack of product planning and execution has left their market share in disarray. Nokia’s valuation has been cut into half while the newcomer HTC edged past the industry giant in a remarkable story of the year. Nokia’s release of N9 shows the engineering and creative design depth but a lot is riding on the first generation of Nokia Windows Phones. While the market hasn’t shown much appetite for Windows phone thus far, a good family of devices might be able to slow the loss trajectory and position the combined team for the up-for-grabs 3rd spot in the ecosystem. HP’s acquisition of Palm is finally bringing some new products to the market but the lack of an effective ecosystem means lack of traction in 2011. Given that the computing is shifting to mobile devices, we can expect some of the weaker desktop/laptop players will exit the industry.
Tablets are primarily being used in the WiFi mode because the primary use case is indoors and WiFi gives a better (and cheaper) user experience. Once operators start to roll out user-friendly family data plans across multiple devices, we can expect the cellular activation go higher but will still be dominated by WiFi overall.
The number of connected devices per subscriber and per family will continue to increase over the course of this decade. As the cost structure and margin profile for these devices will be different, we are likely to measure performance of various operators using margin analysis for e.g. while the ARPU for connected devices is 5-10 times lower than the postpaid subscribers, the margins are typically higher due to lower costs of sales, marketing, support, and subsidy. As such the overall impact is dilutive ARPU but higher margins. So, instead of focusing on just the ARPU, the efficiency of operators will be measured in how well they maintain average margin per user (AMPU) and average margin per connection (AMPC).
Managing the data growth
As a result of the data tsunami, there are two types of opportunities that are being created, one that take advantage of the data being generated in a way that enhances the user experience and provides value and the other in technologies that help manage the traffic data that will continue to grow exponentially.
To be able to stay ahead of the demand, significant planning needs to go in to deal with the bits and bytes that are already exploding. New technical and business solutions will be needed to manage the growth and profit from the services. Relying on only one solution won’t be an effective strategy to manage rising data demand. A holistic approach to managing data traffic is needed and our analysis shows that the cost structure can be reduced by more than half if a suite of solutions are deployed vs. a single dimensional approach and thus bringing the hockey stick curves of data cost more in line with the revenues and thus preserving the margins.
The decision making process within the operator organizations will need to be streamlined as well. Operators should also consider creating a senior post which focuses on both the cost side and the solution side so they can devise and institute a sustainable long-term policy and keep the margins healthy.
Competitive landscape
The Rule of Three is evident in all major markets. While the percentage market share might vary, on an average, the top 3 control 93% of the market in an given nation. It doesn’t matter if the market is defined by “controlled regulation” like in China, Korea, and Japan or if it is “open market” driven in markets such as the US, UK, and India. Eventually, only top 3 operators control the majority of the market. There are niches that others occupy but they are largely irrelevant to the overall structure and functioning of the mobile market.
Markets such as US and India experienced similar competitive environment in their hyper-growth phase. For the US, this phase was in the nineties-mid-2000s while India has been experiencing the similar environment in the last 3-4 years. In both cases, at the start there are 5-6 players with no more than 25% market share but higher than 10% of the mix but gradually the market forces enable consolidation. Over a period of 18 years, US is settling into a “top 3” operator market. India’s brutal price wars are going to trigger the consolidation in the next 12-24 months and will eventually settle into a structure similar to other markets.
The competitive equilibrium point in the mobile industry seems to when the market shares of the top 3 are 46%:29%:18% respectively with the remaining 7% being allocated to the niche operators. To achieve some semblance of equilibrium in the market the top operator shouldn’t have more than 50% of the market share and the number three player shouldn’t have less than 20%. This helps create enough balance in the market to derive maximum value for the consumer.
Mobile operators will face some hard choices in developing and protecting the role they want to play in a given region and the ecosystem at-large. The strategy they choose will have a direct impact on the expected EBITDA margins, investment required over the long-haul, how investors view them, and on the competitive landscape of the country. Given, the fast pace of globalization, new rules and trends might emerge over the course of this decade that further define “communications” and “computing” as we know it.
Apps and Services
As expected, mobile commerce and payment discussions are dominating the ecosystem. There is clearly a lot of investment and marketing dollars being spent. However, the traditional payments networks are largely intact. The new opportunities are being built on top of the existing payment platforms with convenience (Square) and offers and advertising (Google Wallet, ISIS, Groupon). Beyond payments, mobile is getting ingrained into every vertical and every facet of our lives – from healthcare to education, from energy to entertainment, from communication to socialization. And we are in the early innings of figuring out the business models, ecosystem leaders, user behavior, regulatory needs, and the overall impact on society.
Ecosystem Dynamics
It is very clear that the ecosystem dynamics can change very quickly, one just can’t take the competitive and friendly forces for granted. In the past, the silos and segments were clearly defined with little overlap. However, over the course of last couple of years, players have been migrating and surfing in segments across the board - from Apple to Visa, from P&G to AT&T, from Facebook to Time Warner, from Google to Best Buy, every company wants to capture the mindshare and piece of the consumer’s pocketbook. The fine line between partners and competitors can get obliterated in a quarter. Apple is competing with Cisco, Comcast is going after AT&T’s business, Visa and Verizon want to be the payment channel of choice, Amazon is gunning for Microsoft’s enterprise business. One product launch, one acquisition, can change the game in an instant. And this is only the beginning.
Mobile is fundamentally reshaping how we as consumers spend from housing and healthcare to entertainment and travel, from food and drinks to communication and transportation. Mobile not only influences purchase behavior but also post purchase opinions. When the share button is literally a second away, consumers are willingly sharing more information than ever before. Mobile is thus helping close the nirvana gap for brands and advertisers who seek to connect advertising to actual transactions. The long-term battle is however for owning the context of the users. Having the best knowledge about the user to help drive the transaction is the simply the most valuable currency of commerce.
Mobile Future Forward
We will be discussing the global mobile ecosystem – the challenges and the opportunities at our annual mobile thought-leadership summit – Mobile Future Forward - brought to you in partnership with our terrific partners – Qualcomm, Millennial Media, Real Networks, AT&T Interactive, Synchronoss Technologies, OpenMarket, Ericsson, and Openwave. Hope to see you in Seattle on Sept 12th.
Some of the distinguished guests include:
Abhi Ingle, VP – Advanced Mobility, AT&T Wireless; Amit Gupta, SVP and CTO, INQMobile; Bob Gessel, VP/Head of Technology and Network Strategy, Ericsson; Braxton Woodham, Head of Engineering, AVOS; Carlos Domingo, CEO, Telefonica; Charlie Herrin, SVP - Products and Technology, Comcast; Dale Nitschke, former President, Target; Danny Bowman, President - Connected Devices, Sprint Nextel; David Messenger, EVP, Head - Online/Mobile, American Express; Erik Moreno, SVP, Fox; Gibu Thomas, SVP - Online/Mobile, Walmart; Glenn Lurie, President, AT&T Wireless; Hank Skorny, Chief Strategy Officer, Real Networks; Janet Schijns, VP, Verizon Wireless; Jason McKenzie, President, HTC-Americas; Jay Emmet, GM, OpenMarket; Jeremiah Zinn, EVP, MTV; Jerry Batt, CIO, PulteGroup; John SanGiovanni, Cofounder, Zumobi; Ken Denman, CEO, Openwave; Ken Wirth, President, Alcatel Lucent Wireless; Kris Rinne, SVP - Networks, AT&T Wireless; Mark Rolston, Chief Creative Officer, Frog Design; Matt Oommen, President, Reliance Communications; Mikael Back, VP of Products and Portfolio Management, Ericsson; Mike Mulica, President, Synchronoss Technologies; Paul Palmieri, CEO, Millennial Media; Prof. Cliff Nass, Human Computer Interaction, Stanford University; Rob Glaser, Partner, Accel; Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO, LightSquared; Stephen Bye, CTO, Sprint; Steve Mollenkopf, EVP and Group President, Qualcomm; Subba Rao, former CEO, Tata DoCoMo; Suja Chandrasekaran, CIO, Timberland; Will Hsu, Chief Product Officer, AT&T Interactive
More information at http://www.mobilefutureforward.com
Your feedback is always welcome.
Thanks and have a great 2H 2011.
Chetan Sharma
We will be keeping a close eye on the trends in the wireless data sector in our blog, twitter feeds, future research reports, and articles. The next US Wireless Data Market update will be released in Aug 2011. The next Global Wireless Market update will be issued in Jan 2012.
Disclaimer: Some of the companies mentioned in this paper are our clients.
New Paper: Mobile Cloud Computing May 25, 2011
Posted by chetan in : 4G, AORTA, BRIC, Connected Devices, Enterprise Mobility, European Wireless Market, Infrastructure, Mobile Applications, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile Search, Mobile Traffic, US Wireless Market, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , 1 comment so farMobile Cloud Computing
http://www.chetansharma.com/mobilecloudcomputing.htm
Sponsored by Real Networks
These are exciting times in the wireless industry. The innovation in technology, services, and business models is driving the global industry to new heights. While the global markets were feeling the pain of a brutal recession, the wireless industry for the most part sidestepped the crisis, especially in the North American and Asian markets. Mobile data revenues around the world have been growing at a steady pace. Given the lucrative nature of the market, there are more developers focused on the mobile ecosystem than ever before.
The mobile industry is going through significant transition from being voice-centric to data-centric, from consumers spending 90% of their time talking to being engaged on mobile data services 80% of the time. In Japan, Softbank became the first major operator to have more revenues come from data than voice. Others will follow. In the US, over 35% of the revenues are coming from data services and the data revenues will account for over 50% of the revenues by early 2013.
Mobility is also getting ingrained in the everyday objects, which make up for a fundamental reassessment of how things are done across industries in almost every region of the world. It is not just the phones and the data cards that are being enabled by the broadband connectivity but also the electronic devices such as the tablets, eReaders, automobiles, picture frames, and cameras.
Anything that can be connected will be connected making access omnipresent.
In such a multi-device world, the role of cloud computing becomes central to the content access and sharing. Consumers won’t like to store and upload by device type but would want the same level of functionality available across all their devices necessitating the need for mobile cloud computing. In a mobile environment, one has to contend with the limitations of screen size, the variability of devices, and the network latency. Therefore, the cloud requirements will vary by context.
With the emergence of the smartphones, the mobile operators are being gradually cut out of the value added services space with most of the revenues shifting to rest of the ecosystem. Mobile cloud computing provides an opportunity to leverage their network infrastructure assets and their consumer relationships to open up new revenue streams.
This paper will explore the mobile cloud computing market, its drivers, the opportuniies and the key elements of success in this space. Further, the paper discusses why operators should take a more active role in this space. Mobile cloud computing is here to stay. The winners and losers will be decided based on how players will adapt to empower consumers.
US Mobile Data Market Update Q1 2011 May 9, 2011
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, ARPU, BRIC, Connected Devices, Indian Wireless Market, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Breakfast Series, Mobile Commerce, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Future, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile Gaming, Mobile Payments, Mobile Search, Mobile TV, Mobile Traffic, Mobile Users, Mobile Wallet, Speaking Engagements, US Wireless Market, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , add a comment|
US Mobile Data Market Update Q1 2011 http://www.chetansharma.com/usmarketupdateq12011.htm
The US wireless data market grew 4% Q/Q and 23% Y/Y to reach $15.4B in mobile data service revenues in Q1 2011 and is on course to increase Y/Y by 22% to $67B in 2011. Of all the segments, the connected device category registered the highest growth at 9.6% Q/Q while the postpaid subscriptions growth was almost flat for the quarter. Connected devices (including tablets, M2M, telematics, eReaders, etc.) now account for 8% of the subscription base. For the first time, the smartphone sales crossed the 50% share mark in the US. Also, the US now accounts for approximately one-third of all smartphone sales in the world. The Big News - AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile The big news during Q1 2011 was of course the blockbuster announcement of the acquisition of T-Mobile USA. We had pondered on the viability of 4 operators in the US market in the past. All the major mobile market eventually settle with three main players controlling the market. So, the news wasn’t a surprise as we had expected something to break loose and conform to the natural market evolution. T-Mobile US has been under tremendous pressure for the last 2 years being unable to expand its postpaid base despite modernizing its network/backhaul and introducing a slew of impressive handsets. It was getting squeezed both from the top (Verizon and AT&T) and from the bottom (MetroPCS, etc.) while duking it out with Sprint in the middle. The decision window was closing as Deutsche Telekom had to decide if it wanted to invest in LTE or not (in the US market). Given that the parent business has been under pressure as well, it decided to take the most attractive available option. The proposed merger will obviously have an impact on the market structure. The market power will get concentrated in the top 2. The HHI3 Index will go from .22 to .31 but the HHI3 value will be at par with UK, Canada (though the Canadian market is not a good proxy for a competitive market), and some of the other markets. The biggest task for the US regulators will be to analyze the impact on the consumer interest and service pricing on a market-by-market basis. Putting things into perspective, this move is not unusual for a developed market. On average, the top 3 operators in the developed markets around the world control 94% of the market. The proposed merger roughly resembles the merger that took place in UK last year when T-Mobile and Orange, the number 3 and 4 player (each having approximately 19% of the share) respectively in the market merged to form Everything Everywhere and become the number 1 player in the market with 38% market share. However, if we look at the history of competitiveness in the US mobile market, the market and revenue concentration will be at its highest in the history of the US wireless industry. Such a move is likely to have an impact on the ecosystem depending on the regulatory policies. Last month, we published a first of its kind in-depth study on competition in mobile markets -“Competition and the Evolution of Mobile Markets - A Study of Competition in Global Mobile Markets”. The paper presents the analysis and an in-depth analytical framework to study the competitive landscape in the global mobile markets. Transparency as a competitive advantage An unfortunate side effect of an industry moving too fast is that regulations are often behind the curve (we discuss the role of regulators in our Competition paper mentioned above). Q2 will see a lot of heated debates around privacy and competition. Current regulatory framework in the US seems ineffective to meet the demands of the digital age. The indecision and a weak regulatory framework can be harmful to the ecosystem. While the industry has done a poor job of explaining targeting and relevancy and the associated consumer benefits, by over reacting, regulators can mess up the potential for better services. It is not the mechanics they need to regulate but the “transparency” of services and policies in plain English. Regulating transparency seems to be a more effective way. The ecosystem players will do better if they use transparency not as a threat but as a competitive advantage. The new troika - AAG A couple of years back, I gave a talk about the changing mobile ecosystem and what it means to compete in an environment where the ecosystem stacks get reshuffled every few months. I wrote about that in an essay that was published in the Mobile Future Forward book last year. While innovation is coming from all angles - fast and furious - the troika of Apple, Amazon, and Google is leading the way right now. Their interests are clashing in multiple dimensions - device, user data, cloud, advertising, local, commerce, books, etc. In a fast changing environment, either you define the market or be defined by it. The journey from being an arch-rival to a frenemy (and vice-versa) can be a short one. A significant shift As we mentioned in our last research note, 2010 marked the milestone of the start of a new computing and communications era. For the first time in the US, the smartphones shipments exceeded the traditional computer segments (that consists of desktops, notebooks and netbooks). Smartphones and the connected devices now account for 51% of the computing devices revenue in the US (devices include desktops, notebooks, netbooks, tablets, eReaders, and conventional feature and smartphones) The growth in of connected devices The connected devices category is the fastest growing segment of the market and while the ARPUs are low, due to the higher margins this segment will prove to be the most profitable in the coming years. By the end of 2011, connected devices will be commanding double digit market share. However, not all sub-segments are going to be successful in the operator channel until multi-device data pricing plans are introduced. Apple’s iPad has been, as expected, a runaway success. Several other tablets launched in 2011 but none has come close to being a credible challenge. OEMs will do well to segment the market and price accordingly rather than follow Apple in performance and pricing. Market is fairly young and there is tremendous room for growth. Another trend that is obvious is the development of an alternate ecosystem. 85% of the tablets use primarily use WiFi for connectivity meaning that OEMs need more diverse distribution channels. Operators who start to bundle multiple devices by single data plans and data buckets are going to see a better yield in this category. We do expect multi-device or family data plans to start being introduced in the US market in 2011. Also, the $200-250 Android tablets will start to emerge during the second half of the year to broaden the choices for the consumers. Turmoil in the OEM land Another headline grabbing event in Q1 2011 was that of Microsoft’s partnership with Nokia. Nokia’s lack of a credible response to Apple and Android has left the company scrambling for survival. Nokia still dominates the unit sales but the domination of Apple and the Android OEMs has taken away significant profits and ecosystem mindshare. Industry is awaiting the first release of the Windows phone from Nokia which will have a lot riding on it. If the release of iPhone 5 coincides with this release, the Christmas selling season will be interesting. The OEMs that have impressed the most are HTC and Samsung. The collapsed release cycles and the fierce pace of introduction of new devices have caught many of the traditional players unprepared. These things have a tendency of going in cycles so we expect the pendulum to swing again in the next 12-24 months. There is a fight for the #3 spot and it is likely that Windows will fill that void. However, for developers, iOS and Android are the only platforms they need to worry about right now. Verizon finally got its iPhone and as expected it didn’t make a big dent into the AT&T’s financials. Platforms - Horizontal vs. Vertical Over the past few quarters, we have seen a fascinating battle brew between the horizontal (Android and Windows) and the vertical (Apple, RIM, Nokia) device platforms. In the US, in the smartphone category, the horizontal platforms (primarily Android) has been gaining significant share since Q1 2010 and now have over 65% share of the new devices sold while the vertical platforms’ share has declined to 35%. However, the revenues and profits are still dominated by the vertical platforms. What to expect in the coming months? All this has setup an absolutely fascinating 2011 in the communication/computing industry. Convergence is everywhere and is leading to a fundamental reset of the value chains and ecosystems. We are going to be discussing the ins and outs of how the industry is going to evolve in the next decade in our Sept 12th mobile thought leadership summit – Mobile Future Forward which is bringing exceptional industry thought-leaders, inventors, and doers to brainstorm, discuss, and debate what’s next. Hope you can join us. As usual, we will be keeping a very close eye on the micro- and macro-trends and reporting on the market on a regular basis in various private and public settings. Against this backdrop, the analysis of the Q1 2011 US wireless data market is: Service Revenues
ARPU
Subscribers
· Sprint is on good comeback adding over million customers. Sprint extended its streak of positive net-adds to four quarters by adding over a million subs for the second straight time since Q1 2006. · T-Mobile however continues to be sandwiched between the top three and the next three and is having a hard time adding postpaid subscribers. Applications and Services
Handsets
Global Update
Your feedback is always welcome. Thanks. Chetan Sharma We will be keeping a close eye on the trends in the wireless data sector in our blog, twitter feeds, future research reports, and articles. The next US Wireless Data Market update will be released in Aug 2011. The next Global Wireless Data Market update will be issued in Jun 2011. Disclaimer: Some of the companies mentioned in this paper are our clients. |
New Research: Competition and the Evolution of Mobile Markets April 28, 2011
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, ARPU, BRIC, Carriers, Devices, Enterprise Mobility, European Wireless Market, Gaming, General, India, Indian Wireless Market, Infrastructure, Intellectual Property, International Trade, Japan Wireless Market, Location Based Services, M&A, Mergers and Acquisitions, Messaging, Middleware, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Entertainment, Networks, Patents, Privacy, Smart Phones, US Wireless Market, Wi-Fi, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , add a comment|
Competition and the Evolution of Mobile Markets A Study of Competition in Global Mobile Markets
http://chetansharma.com/mobilecompetition.htm Over the course of the last decade, mobile communications has become an essential part of the global fabric of evolution. With almost 70% global subscription penetration as of 2010, mobility is being embedded into almost every facet of our lives. Mobility is also spreading across verticals whether it is m-pesa in Kenya or SMS based counterfeit medicine detection in Ghana or paying for your coffee using your NFC enabled mobile phone in a Tokyo café or watching the cricket world cup broadcast while hiking the Yangtze river near Tibet. Consumers expect access to information everywhere they are and the ecosystem is responding with continued innovation, which has become extremely critical in managing the competitiveness of nations. It is also apparent that some of the innovation and market dynamics has been evidenced by the competitiveness of these markets at different levels – network, devices, and services. While the market entry conditions into the devices and software services markets have gone through significant overhaul this last decade, the competitiveness framework of the mobile networks has been more structured and controlled in many instances. Given the importance of the mobile network infrastructure to every nation’s competitiveness, security, and productivity, it is useful to understand how the “competitive mobile markets” are formed. In theory, the perfectly competitive markets are in the best interest of the consumers as they provide the best value given the competitive dynamics and the equilibrium provides good checks and balances for the ecosystem. The global mobile networks have shown a remarkable adherence to the “Rule of Three” which states that in any mature industry, 3 top players dominate the market. Sometimes it has been dictated by the regulators and in other instances by the markets. Some markets like in Europe have settled into a state of equilibrium while other hyper growth markets like India are shuffling to find the right balance. The elements of globalization are also shaping how mobile network operators grow. The regulators and the political class are increasingly looking at mobile networks as national assets and any foreign ownership generally goes through tremendous scrutiny. Having worked in major mobile markets around the world, we have been intrigued by the framework for a competitive market and this is the theme we explore in this working paper. Having the front row seat in an industry that is growing stupendously has given us some unique perspective on the competitive forces at work in the mobile space. We studied the competitive landscape in 40 top mobile markets around the globe. This paper presents the analysis and an in-depth analytical framework to study the competitive landscape in the global mobile markets. Download Paper (45 pages, 2MB) Disclaimer: Some of the companies mentioned in this paper are our clients. |
Mobile Breakfast Series – The Universe of Connected Devices
Posted by chetan in : Carriers, Connected Devices, Devices, European Wireless Market, Mobile Applications, Mobile Breakfast Series, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Future Forward, US Wireless Market, Worldwide Wireless Market , add a commentEarlier this month, we hosted our 6th Mobile Breakfast Series Event in Seattle at the picturesque Columbia Tower Club. The topic is something that has been occupying everyone’s attention lately with some terrific growth numbers.
We were doing some math earlier this year and the chart above illustrates how fast the mobile ecosystem is subsuming the computing ecosystem as they become one and the same.
As you might have noted in our 2010 US market update, connected devices is the highest growing category in the market at 55%. It is creating new revenue streams and enabling new verticals to get mobilized. It is also disrupting the traditional ecosystems. This made it a perfect time to discuss the topic in-depth.
Our panelists were:
Tyler Davidson, VP, Amdocs
Martin Fichter, VP - Product Management Americas, HTC
Mike Mulica, President and Head of Strategy, Synchronoss Technologies
Ilja Laurs, Founder and CEO, Getjar
Erik Kling, Director - M2M, Vodafone Global Enterprise Group
Wilson Rothman, Deputy Technology and Science Editor, MSNBC.com (moderator)
As always, we try to bring players across the ecosystem to have a good discussion from multiple angles. Our panel didn’t disappoint.
First a bit about the panelists to give you some background on their viewpoints. Erik Kling is deep into M2M and Vodafone is pursuing a very aggressive M2M strategy worldwide with some smart value proposition to the enterprises. That can put some of the domestic operators at a disadvantage. Tyler Davidson focuses his energy on managing customers but also thinks deeply about the management of media in the connected world. The rage of apps is carrying from smartphones to tablets and other connected devices as well and Ilja Laurs knows a thing or two about apps – running the largest independent app store and being quite successful at it.
HTC just crossed Nokia in revenues which was just unthinkable even last year. HTC has run a very effective strategy in devices and Martin Fichter is one of the guys who is making things happen in the US market. If you have an iPhone, you have been touched by Synchronoss Technologies. They activate the iOS and other devices. A billion $ company you might have never heard of. Mike Mulica has deep experience in the mobile space and is driving the strategy of connected devices and related software forward. Last but not the least, our moderator Wilson Rothman has been covering gadgets most of his adult life and is a darn good moderator.
The highlights of the discussion was as follows:
- M2M is getting good traction in consumer electronics, telematics, and medical. Vodafone is doing a ton of business with the medical/pharma companies who would like connected devices without the worry of roaming, certification, etc. Within a year, Vodafone’s M2M group has grown up to 200 people and they are hiring at a rapid pace if anyone is looking.
- Other M2M areas that are evolving are: security, remote access, home monitoring, etc.
- Connected devices are accelerating the move from voice to data
- The fact that AT&T is advertising M2M Vending machines on TV shows it is serious business.
- HTC passed Nokia in market cap on the back of Android and the 4G devices. For tablets, WiFi is a preferred route rather than operators as that’s what the demand is.
- With connected devices avalanche coming our way, WiFi is going to be extremely important, need better technologies for WiFi/Cellular migration.
- Consumers chose a device or a service first and the operator is now an afterthought.
- Operators need an open environment to operate but want to create a preference for them – it is like “controlled openness” like Microsoft so they can certify devices and apps that go on their network
- All this connectivity does need billions of $ of investment so there is a need for a toll for these services. However, we need to reduce friction with security, payment, and plans.
- Apple doesn’t want to be an operator but does want a free ride like NetFlix and YouTube.
- WiFi is not only necessary, it is essential for the survival of the industry.
- Amazon launching an app store is a good thing for the industry, puts pressure on Google a bit.
- Companies like Skype would pay the operators for better bandwidth but the process is a bit cumbersome.
- Battery Life. Enuff Said.
We also announced that our annual thought-leadership summit on mobile - “Mobile Future Forward” will take place on Sept 12th in Seattle. We have some terrific speakers lined up which lead to some fabulous discussion. Stay tuned for more information early May.
My utmost thanks to David Smith, SVP at Enterprise Ireland for his notes from the event. It helped refresh my memory and pointed out things that I had missed amidst running around.
Thanks all for coming and making it a successful outing. Our next Mobile Breakfast Series is going to be on Mobile Commerce and Payments in late June. Stay Tuned for details.
US Mobile Data Market Update Q4 2010 and 2010 February 28, 2011
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, ARPU, BRIC, Carriers, Enterprise Mobility, European Wireless Market, Indian Wireless Market, Japan Wireless Market, Location Based Services, M&A, Mergers and Acquisitions, Microsoft Mobile, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Event, Mobile Future, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile Gaming, Mobile Search, Mobile Traffic, Mobile Usability, Networks, Smart Phones, US Wireless Market, Wi-Fi, WiMax, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , add a commentUS Mobile Data Market Update Q4 2010 and 2010
http://www.chetansharma.com/usmarketupdate2010.htm
The US wireless data market grew 5% Q/Q and 23% Y/Y to reach $14.8B in mobile data service revenues in Q4 2010. The final tally for the 2010 year was $55B and we expect this to increase by 22% to $67B in 2011.
The US mobile subscriptions officially crossed the 100% penetration mark in Q4 2010.
Of all the segments, the connected device category registered the highest growth at 55% while the postpaid subscriptions grew by only 3% for the calendar year. Connected devices (including tablets, M2M, telematics, eReaders, etc.) now account for 7% of the base.
A significant shift
2010 marked the milestone of the start of a new computing and communications era. For the first time in the US, the smartphones shipments exceeded the traditional computer segments (that consists of desktops, notebooks and netbooks). In 2011, the smartphone segment along with the connected devices (tablets and eReaders) will not only exceed the computer segment in unit shipment but more importantly in the overall revenues as well. Of course, these categories are merging and the lines are blurring but it is good to take stock of the transition which will create new ecosystems and decimate the old ones over the course of this decade.
The evolution of connected devices
The connected devices category is the fastest growing segment of the market and while the ARPUs are low, due to higher margins this segment will prove to be the most profitable in the coming years. By the end of 2011, connected devices will be commanding double digit market share. However, not all sub-segments are going to be successful in the operator channel until multi-device data pricing plans are introduced. Most of the tablets and eReaders can work well with only WiFi most of the times. Monthly data plans make sense for enterprise users but not for consumers who might use these devices occasionally. As such tablets will be more successful in direct and traditional retail channels.
Operators who start to bundle multiple devices by single data plans and data buckets are going to see a better yield in this category (We will be discussing the connected devices universe in our upcoming Mobile Breakfast Series event in April).
Similarly, OEMs who rely on the operators for sell-through of tablets/eReaders will see low volumes vs. players who have more diverse distribution channels (Apple and HP). We do expect multi-device or family data plans to start being introduced in the US market in 2011.
As we had mentioned in our last research note, iPad (and other tablets) are making Netbooks irrelevant. In fact, tablets are starting to eat into the laptop category as well. As expected, the device has been a hit with many enterprises with mobile workers. Many enterprises are giving out iPads to their workforce instead of laptops or Netbooks.
At CES 2011, hundreds of tablets were introduced. While the total number of releases was noteworthy, we expect iPad to dominate the space in 2011 as competitors will find it hard to compete across all dimensions - price, performance, ecosystem, distribution, and brand power.
Mobile Data Consumption
Mobile data consumption continued to grow across all networks increasing 2-5 times on major US networks. Many of the superphones introduced in 2H10 are clocking 1-1.5GB/mo average. The average data consumption in the US at the end of 2010 was 350 MB/mo. Thus, while the data revenues for the year increased 23%, the mobile data traffic grew 132%.
The significant rise in the smartphones sales and usage in the US market (over 50% devices sold in the US in 2010 were smartphones almost twice the global average) means that by the end of 2011, in the US, the smartphones will consume more data than the data cards for the first time. We also expect US to become the number 1 nation in mobile data consumption this year edging out Sweden. A detailed treatment of the subject can be found in our "Managing Growth and Profits in the Yottabyte Era" paper. Another research update on the topic will be released in 1H11.
The center of gravity has shifted back to the US
As I mentioned in my Time magazine interview earlier this month, there is no question that the center of gravity of the mobile market has shifted back to the US. The Nokia-Microsoft announcement was a wake-up call to many in the industry who were in denial. The innovation is happening all around the world and in many areas other countries are years ahead. The markets are growing faster in India, China, and elsewhere. However, the coordinates of what’s next have clearly changed in the last three years. The software innovation and the next generation network launches in the US are laying the foundation of a solid mobile decade.
US is also the most dominant market in terms of revenue generation for the industry. While the US represents less than 6% of the subscription base, it accounts for over 21% of the data revenues with Verizon Wireless becoming the number one mobile data operator in 2010 edging past the decade long leader NTT DoCoMo. AT&T also went past China Mobile to gain its current number three ranking. By the end of 2013, the US market will account for 25% of the global mobile data services revenues (We will have a detailed analysis of the global markets in our upcoming research note in march).
Nokia-Microsoft partnership
Nokia’s market problem can be summed up thusly - “While Nokia sold 10 times more devices than Apple in 2010, its market cap is 1/10th that of Apple.” It has been clear for some time that things had to change at Nokia.
Weeks leading up to the Mobile World Congress were rampant with curiosity of who will Nokia marry to continue its next phase of device journey. The multi-billion dollar offering from Microsoft proved too hard to resist for Nokia. This news completely dominated the MWC chatter and the topic comes up invariably in many conversations since then. One has to give points to Nokia for decisiveness and for moving quickly under the pressure.
It is also indisputable that the deal is a significant win for Microsoft who has been looking to come back into the game. However, impact on Nokia remains uncertain. While there were risks with Android, going with Win7 is not an assured path to resurrection either. It all comes down to execution. Can the troops be rallied to produce a slew of competitive devices quickly that consumers and operators will find attractive?
Microsoft understands developers better than most and the two companies can bring in tremendous scale and complementary toolsets to attack the market. Nokia has significant talent and it’s a proud company but jumping into the shark-infested cold waters miles away from the shore will require all the stamina, good weather, and skill it can muster to make landfall before thanksgiving.
MeeGo is likely to go back into Intel’s camp and might look interesting to the likes of LG, Samsung and even Motorola though creating a new ecosystem is a tall order. Never a dull moment in the industry, is there?
Impact of iPhone on AT&T
It finally happened. The Verizon iPhone has kept the media busy for the last 3.5 years. It was quite an anticlimactic moment when the device finally came to the 2nd operator in the US. It was inevitable that one of the longest exclusive relationship in the wireless world will come to an end. The iPhone singlehandedly turned around AT&T relative to Verizon in the net-adds race. For 10 quarters leading up to Q2 2007, AT&T was adding less net-adds compared to Verizon, in fact the cumulative net-add loss was 3.7 million subs on an average of 374,000 subs per quarter. As soon as the iPhone was launched in Q2 2007, AT&T started adding more net-adds compared to Verizon with the 14 quarter cumulative net-add difference close to 6 million subs on an average of 426,000 subs per quarter.
What to expect in the coming months?
Kids of the now generation are growing with connected electronics that is fundamentally altering the behaviors and expectations of interaction, communication, consumption, and monetization.
Android and iOS are completely dominating the developer and ecosystem mindshare and the race to become a viable 3rd option is on. Operators would love to see another competitive force emerge in the market.
All this has setup an absolutely fascinating 2011 in the communication/computing industry. Convergence is everywhere and is leading to a fundamental reset of the value chains and ecosystems. We are going to be discussing the ins and outs of how the industry is going to evolve in the next decade in our Sept 15th mobile thought leadership summit – Mobile Future Forward which is bringing exceptional industry thought-leaders, inventors, and doers to brainstorm, discuss, and debate what’s next. More details to come.
US is also leading the way in smartphone sales. In Q4 2010, 48% of the devices sold in the US were smartphones compared to 25% globally. The fast pace of device introduction has catapulted the agile players like Samsung and HTC to the forefront while others like LG and Sony Ericsson have lost ground. By singularly focusing on Android, Motorola did quite well in 2010 but 2011 is going to be challenging.
The pace of product introduction is accelerating with each quarter. Devices of all shapes and sizes are coming into the market literally every week. Players are having to re-evaluate their businesses and long-term strategies. There are several players whose future is at stake. The competition has grown fierce and companies are finding it hard to take ideas from R&D to products in market in a short amount of time.
While 2010 started quite active on the regulatory front as the national broadband plan was unveiled in March little substantive progress has been made w.r.t. the spectrum, net-neutrality, and other broadband related issues. The matter has swiftly moved to courts where it will take months before anything useful comes out.
Operators are starting to diversify more aggressively than in the past. AT&T’s mobile enterprise business is a leading indicator of this trend. Their focus by verticals has yielded new revenue streams and positioning them to become a one-stop shop for devices, access, and services in the enterprise market.
As usual, we will be keeping a very close eye on the micro- and macro-trends and reporting on the market on a regular basis in various private and public settings.
Against this backdrop, the analysis of the Q4 2010 and 2010 US wireless data market is:
Service Revenues
- The US Wireless data service revenues grew 5% Q/Q and 23% Y/Y to $14.8B in Q410. The mobile data revenues for the US market reached $55B in 2010.
- Verizon, AT&T, Sprint had a good mobile data quarter accounting for 86% of the increase in data revenues in Q4 2010.
- T-Mobile’s 3G/4G drive is starting to pay off. While the postpaid net-adds were still in the red, its data growth is starting to match with its peers. The 24% smartphone base definitely helps.
- For the calendar year 2010, AT&T and Verizon accounted for 69% of the market data services revenues and 64% of the subscription base.
- Verizon Wireless edged past NTT DoCoMo and AT&T went past China Mobile to become #1 and #3 respectively in operators by mobile data revenues in 2010. Sprint and T-Mobile maintained their #6 and #8 rank in the top 10 mobile data operators list for 2010.
ARPU
- The Overall ARPU decreased by $0.58. Average voice ARPU declined by $0.90 while the average data ARPU grew by $0.32 or 2% Q/Q.
- The average industry percentage contribution of data to overall ARPU was 34% in Q410.
- Verizon led in data ARPU with $18.79 followed by AT&T and Sprint. In terms of % contribution, all the top three operators exceeded the 30% mark. T-Mobile ended the quarter with approximately 28% of its revenue coming from data services.
- We expect data revenues to exceed voice revenues in the US market by Q2 2013.
Subscribers
- US crossed the 100% penetration mark in terms of total subscriptions.
- Helped by the growth in connected devices, the overall net-adds increased by 4.9M.
- For the fifth straight quarter, AT&T reported more net-adds from connected devices than postpaid subs. Connected devices are now almost 10% of AT&T’s subscription base.
- Overall, AT&T edged past Verizon in total number of connected devices. The connected device segment grew 9% Q/Q and 55% Y/Y.
- Sprint made a nice comeback in 2010 reversing the 11 quarter negative net-adds trend by adding three straight positive net-add quarters. Sprint extended its streak of positive net-adds to three quarters by adding over a million subs for the first time since Q1 2006.
- T-Mobile however continues to be sandwiched between the top three and the next three and is having a hard time adding postpaid subscribers. For the year, the operator ended the year 390K subscribers (postpaid) below the 2009 levels. It’s churn rate is almost 60% higher than the average of its top competitors and the cost of postpaid churn was over half a billion dollars in 2010. However, the increased smartphone penetration, quick HSPA+ deployment, backhaul upgrades, and a clever marketing campaign is helping on the mobile data front.
Applications and Services
- While the percentage share of the data revenues is declining for messaging, the revenue growth stays strong with almost $17B in messaging revenues.
- In 2010, there was a significant shift that took place in terms of app revenues. There was more revenues generated (globally) from off-deck than on-deck for the first time and while the on-deck revenues are in billions, the decline trend looks irreversible. In the US, this shift will occur in 2011.
- The usage and data consumption trends are enabling carriers to accelerate their 3.5G/4G plans and develop long-term business and technical strategies.
- The market is finally starting to see activity in the mobile commerce and payment services as well as in various industry verticals like healthcare, retail, and education. Much more to come in 2011.
Handsets
- Nokia sold 123.7M units in Q4 2010 accounting for 31% of the market share. Samsung continues to be one of the most agile players in the device business shipping a whopping 80.7M for a 20% share of the market. Apple again edged past RIM to be in the top 5 along with the new entrant ZTE which broke into the top 5 for the first time.
Data Traffic
- As we noted in our previous updates, the data traffic is now significantly more than the voice traffic. By end of 2010, the average US consumer was consuming approximately 350 MB/mo up 132% in 12 months. The good news is that there are several solutions available and are being invented that will help manage the data growth starting with the tiered pricing plans.
- Q4 10 also saw significant activity in the 4G space with Verizon launching its LTE network and after the ITU flip-flop, the HSPA+ deployments of T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless along with Sprint’s WiMAX made US the epicenter of 4G growth for the next few years.
Your feedback is always welcome.
Thanks.
Chetan Sharma
We will be keeping a close eye on the trends in the wireless data sector in our blog, twitter feeds, future research reports, and articles. The next US Wireless Data Market update will be released in May 2011. The next Global Wireless Data Market update will be issued in Mar 2011.
Disclaimer: Some of the companies mentioned in this paper are our clients.
New White Paper: The Promise of Mobile Advertising February 2, 2011
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, Carriers, Middleware, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Future, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile Usability, Mobile Users, Privacy, Smart Phones, US Wireless Market, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , 1 comment so far
http://www.chetansharma.com/PromiseOfMobileAdvertising.htm
Commissioned by AT&T Interactive
Executive Summary
The world of advertising is changing at a dizzying pace. New media are transforming advertising, and consumer expectations have changed accordingly. In this dynamic environment, no communications platform holds more promise than the mobile device.
Mobile platforms present a unique opportunity to reinvent advertising. With mobile, the perception of advertising will shift from interruptive broadcast messages to targeted information services of real value to consumers and positive interactions that have an immediate top-line impact.
Advertisers care about two basic metrics – reach and purity. They want to communicate with as many people as possible (reach) and they want to reach the most accurately targeted audience possible (purity). In the past, advertisers have tried to compensate for a lack of purity by casting a wider net, spending inefficiently and often failing to reach their target audience.
With mobile, advertisers can deliver the right information to the right target at the most opportune time; delight the consumer with instant gratification; complete transactions and measure direct correlations between advertising, transactions, and return on advertising (ROA). With the power of real-time metrics in hand, advertisers can scientifically design, measure, and alter their campaigns and deploy strategies for one-to-one relationship building with customers.
Mobile is having a significant impact on local advertising. The attributes of immediacy, location, always-on connectivity, user profile and segmentation, and the viral nature of the medium make mobile the best channel for local advertisers to engage potential customers.
Thanks.
Chetan Sharma
Disclaimer: Some of the companies mentioned in this paper are our clients.
2011 Mobile Predictions Survey Results January 3, 2011
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, ARPU, BRIC, CTIA, Carriers, Enterprise Mobility, European Wireless Market, IP, IP Strategy, Indian Wireless Market, Infrastructure, Intellectual Property, International Trade, Japan Wireless Market, Location Based Services, M&A, Mergers and Acquisitions, Microsoft Mobile, Middleware, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Event, Mobile Future, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile Gaming, Mobile Traffic, Networks, Patent Strategy, Patents, Privacy, US Wireless Market, WiMax, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , add a comment2011 Mobile Predictions Survey
http://www.chetansharma.com/MobilePredictions2011.htm
First things first. From all of us at Chetan Sharma Consulting, we wish you and yours a very happy,
healthy, and prosperous 2011. Thanks to all who participated in our 2011 Mobile Predictions Annual Survey. We have found it is the best way to think about the trends coming our way.
We put some of the questions to our colleagues and industry leaders in the industry. We were able to glean some valuable insights from their choices and comments. This survey is different from some of the others in the sense that it includes industry movers and shakers participation. Executives and insiders (n=225) from leading mobile companies across the value chain and around the world opined to help us see what 2011 might bring.
Ten names were randomly drawn the limited edition Mobile Future Forward book. The winners are:
1. Jared Cornfeld, Industry analyst, FCC
2. Abhi Rele, Marketing, Microsoft
3. Christopher Billich ,Head of Mobile Advertising, Deutsche Telekom AG
4. Gary Cohen, VP/GM North America, Flirtomatic
5. Peter Jarich, Service Director, Current Analysis
6. Darren Austin, Director of Mobile, Expedia
7. Craig Fisher, Software Client Leader, IBM
8. Steve Wood, CEO, Perlego Systems, Inc.
9. Elliott Hamilton, Sr. Director of Strategic Planning, TeleCommunication Systems
10. Vishal Gupta, Vice President North America, Qualcomm Inc
Thanks again to everyone who contributed. We will be calling on you again next year. We are clearly
living in "interesting times" with never a dull moment in our dynamic industry. It has been a terrific
year for us here at Chetan Sharma Consulting and we are looking forward to 2011 and seeing many of
you along the way. We hope you enjoyed gaining from the collective wisdom.
Be well, Do Cool Work, Stay in touch.
Thanks. With warm wishes,
Your feedback is always welcome.
Thanks.
Chetan Sharma
Now onto the 2011 Mobile Industry Predictions Survey Results
The panel comprised of movers and shakers of the mobile industry from around the world.
What will be the biggest stories of 2011?
In last year’s survey, Google/Android narrowly missed out to be the biggest story of the year but this year, the verdict was clear that Google will continue to dominate the headlines with Android devices and new updates and apps. Given that we are in the midst of 4G deployments and ITU’s flipflop on the definition, we could be in for an interesting year.
When will Verizon iPhone launch?
Inordinate amount of ink has been spilt over Verizon’s iPhone speculation. However, given the chatter, our panel voted for a Q1 launch.
Who will be the most open player in the mobile ecosystem in 2011?
In all our surveys Google has consistently cemented its perception of being the most open in the ecosystem.
Will Android tablet sales exceed iOS tablet sales in 2011?
Last year, Android OS edged past iOS, however, given the lead iOS has had in tablets, it might be hard to overcome the number of shipments in 2011.
Who will make the biggest mobile acquisition in 2011?
Got Cash? Big players are likely to go shopping but who will score the blockbuster deal of the year. Google and Microsoft will duke it out with Google taking the spoils.
How will the "Apps vs. Mobile Web" debate shape up in 2011?
Apps vs Mobile Web has been as hotly debated in the industry as the CDMA vs. GSM battles of the past. Our panel thought Apps will continue to grow though mobile web starts to show its muscle.
By how much will the mobile advertising ad-spend increase in 2011?
Our panel was more bullish on mobile advertising than last year with a good 50% of respondents aiming for 200% growth and higher.
Which market will be the biggest infrastructure in 2011 for sales opportunities?
India and China are laying out 3G and North America is expanding on 4G. Infrastructure contracts abound.
Who will be the mobile come back story of 2011?
Many long-time players are under the gun this year. Will Windows 7 help Microsoft or will Meego make Nokia competitive. Story will unfold this year.
Who will end up having the strongest position in the mobile payment/commerce space?
While Japan/Korea markets have developed mature mobile payments solutions, the battle royale of mobile payments in North America will play out between the financial guys and Operators with Internet players making a strong run at it as well. 2011 might help decide the long-term winners in the space. Our panel thinks, the likes of Mastercard and Visa will edge out others in the tussle.
Which areas will feel the most impact from Regulators in 2011?
Regulators can have a huge impact on the course of the industry and nation’s competitiveness. With the laws all but laid out, the real rulings might come from the courts.
Which solutions will gain the most traction for managing mobile data broadband consumption?
2010 saw the emergence of tiered data pricing in North America and operators all over the world are bracing for a long-term challenge of managing mobile data growth. We have written extensively on this subject in our Yottabyte series. Our panel voted for Tiered pricing and 4G as the top two solutions.
Which category will generate the most data revenues in 2011?
Global markets are quite different and while data service revenues have been growing in all regions, our panel breaks down by categories in terms of expected contribution from various segments.
What will help mobile cloud computing gain traction in 2011?
Mobile Cloud Computing is expected to take several strides in 2011 with Media and Enterprise demand at the forefront.
What will be the most successful non-mobile phone category in 2011?
As we have highlighted in our previous research, Connected devices have shown tremendous growth in 2010. Tablet seems to be clear category winner.
What will be the breakthrough category in mobile in 2011?
Mobile payments and commerce are starting to take off and are expected to show the most growth in 2011.
By the end of 2011, how will we end up defining 4G?
ITU’s flipflop means, anything above HSPA+ will be deemed a 4G technology.
Which enterprise segment will mobile impact the most?
Mobile as a platform is booming with Retail finally getting into the swing of things and will show the most activity in 2011.
What will be the dominant revenue model for apps in 2011?
While paid apps dominated the revenue stream in the early days, advertising and in-app payments are taking off on iOS and Android. Developers will play with a combination of models depending on what works on a given platform.
What mode of mobile payments will get traction in NA and WE in 2011?
Operators experimented with mobile payments over the last few years, now is the time to put the solutions to the test.
Who was the mobile person of the year?
Who can compete with King Jobs. Launching iconic devices year after another, Steve Jobs has set the direction of the industry since 2007 and was a clear favorite for the mobile person of the year. The tremendous success of the apps personified by blockbuster hit of "Angry Birds" took away the second spot with Andy Rubin’s Android effort won him the third spot.
Well, there you have it. The top trends and stories we will be talking about in 2011. Thanks again for all who participated and we hope that you found this useful as you embark on your journey for the year.
We will be keeping a close eye on the trends in the wireless data sector in our blog, twitter feeds, future research reports, and articles. The next US Wireless Data Market update will be released in Mar 2011. The next Global Wireless Data Market update will be issued in Mar 2011.
Disclaimer: Some of the companies mentioned in this paper are our clients.
US Mobile Data Market Update Q3 2010 November 7, 2010
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, ARPU, CTIA, Devices, Enterprise Mobility, European Wireless Market, Indian Wireless Market, Intellectual Property, Location Based Services, MVNO, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Event, Mobile Future, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile TV, Mobile Traffic, Smart Phones, US Wireless Market, Wi-Fi, WiMax, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , add a commentUS Mobile Data Market Update Q3 2010
http://www.chetansharma.com/usmarketupdateq32010.htm
Executive Summary
The US wireless data market grew 7% Q/Q and 25% Y/Y to exceed $14B in mobile data service revenues in Q3 2010 - on track to meet (and most likely exceed) our initial estimate of $54B for the year.
Sprint had a second straight positive net-add quarter. T-Mobile also reversed its losses and had a net-positive quarter though postpaid additions were down for both the carriers. 2011 is shaping up to be an interesting year with some big M&As on the cards. The launch of 4G networks provides an opportunity to realign the industry.
The US subscription penetration crossed 96% at the end of Q3 2010. If we take out the demographics of 5 yrs and younger, the mobile penetration is now past 101%. While the traditional net-adds have been slowing, the “connected device” segment is picking up so much that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint added more connected devices than postpaid subs in Q3 2010. Given the slow postpaid growth, operators are fiercely competing in prepaid, enterprise, connected devices, and M2M segments.
The role of connected devices
In the connected device category, tablets led almost singlehandedly by the iPad is taking away the lion share of the revenues. The whole category is catching up speed in the US with 12% growth Q/Q much higher than in the postpaid segment which has trickled down to 1% Q/Q growth by Q3 2010.
We expect that in less than 5 years, the connected devices category will generate more revenue for the operators than the entire prepaid segment in the US. While today, connected devices represent only 3% of the quarterly data revenues, this segment didn’t really exist a few months ago and will keep on gaining strength every year for the foreseeable future.
In terms of financials, the addition of connected devices units and revenues to the mix masks the tremendous growth in smartphone related data revenues. For example, T-Mobile lost 360K postpaid subs but added 300K connected devices for a net loss of 60K subscriptions. Because of lower ARPU, Connected devices have a dilutive impact on the revenues and ARPU so the overall ARPU for postpaid segment for T-Mobile was $52 instead of $55.
iPad literally created a new category and rest of the industry is scrambling to respond. Some just want to follow Apple’s trail to cash in while others don’t want to competing head-to-head with Apple so they are launching smaller sized units. There will be others who will launch devices at every inch increments just to see what sticks. However you might slice and dice the market, the segment is here to stay and as we had mentioned before, Netbooks will take a hit as the category was the creature of a falling economy and with a viable alternate, the need for Netbooks diminishes.
Mobile Data Consumption
Data traffic continued to increase across all networks. There are some superphones that are routinely average more than 1 GB/mo, superphones as a category is averaging 700-800 MB/mo. By the end of 2010, we expect the average US consumption to be approximately 325 MB/mo up 112% from 2009. This puts US right behind Sweden in the top two by per capita mobile data consumption. While the US lags Japan and Korea in 3G penetration by a distance, due to higher penetration of smartphones and datacards, the consumption is much higher than its Asian counterparts. Given that it is also becoming the largest deployment base for HSPA+ and LTE, most of the cutting edge research in areas of data management and experimentation with policy, regulations, strategy, and business models is taking place in the networks of the US operators and keenly watched by players across the global ecosystem.
As we had forecasted, the tiered pricing structure for mobile broadband expanded further with Verizon and T-Mobile following AT&T in deploying policy management strategies for controlling data margins. We will see the pricing evolve over the next 2-4 quarters as the US mobile ecosystem adjusts to the new realities and strategies for mobile data consumption.
What to expect in the coming months?
Kids of the now generation are growing with connected electronics that is fundamentally altering the behaviors and expectations of interaction, communication, consumption, and monetization.
Microsoft launched its much anticipated Windows Phone 7 in a bid to recapture the mind- and unit-share. By taking a different UI route, it actually has a shot to be a viable third option to iPhone and Android and pushing RIM from the top 3.
All this has setup an absolutely fascinating 2011 in the communication/computing industry. Convergence is everywhere and is leading to fundamental reset of the value chains and ecosystems. We are going to be discussing the ins and outs of how the industry is going to evolve in the next decade in our Sept 15th event – Mobile Future Forward which is bringing exceptional industry thought-leaders, inventors, and doers to brainstorm, discuss, and debate what’s next. More details to come. We will also be discussing the trends and opportunities in our Dec Mobile Breakfast Series event.
US is also leading the way in smartphone sales. In Q3 2010, 47% of the devices sold in the US were smartphones compared to 24% globally. The fast pace of device introduction has catapulted the agile players like Samsung and HTC to the forefront while others like LG and Sony Ericsson have lost ground. By focusing singularly on Android and by broadening the device portfolio, Motorola has written a great comeback script.
The pace of product introduction is accelerating with each quarter. Devices of all shapes and sizes are coming into the market literally every week. Players are having to re-evaluate their businesses and long-term strategies. There are several players whose future is at stake (to put it mildly). The competition has grown fierce and companies are finding it hard to take ideas from R&D to products in market in a short amount of time.
While 2010 started quite active on the regulatory front as the national broadband plan was unveiled in March little substantive progress has been made w.r.t. the spectrum, net-neutrality, and other broadband related issues.
To start planning for 4G, 5G, and beyond, US should think about rolling a 50 year broadband plan. While more spectrum is always helpful, will we have all the spectrum we need in 2050? or do we need to invent new technologies and business models that use spectrum more wisely? This topic will keep the industry occupied for some time to come.
ITU christened LTE-A and Wireless MAN-Advanced as the “official” 4G technologies but the marketing departments cared less. (We will be releasing the next edition of our “State of the “Mobile” Broadband Nation” in the coming months.
As we had mentioned last year, the mobile data traffic kept on growing disproportional to the revenues. A series of solutions have come into the market from players big and small. We released the second edition of our in-depth research paper on data growth - "Managing Growth and Profits in the Yottabyte Era" earlier this year.
Finally, operators are starting to diversify more aggressively than in the past. AT&T’s mobile enterprise business is a leading indicator of this trend. Their focus by verticals has yielded new revenue streams and positioning them to become a one-stop shop for devices, access, and services in the enterprise market.
We will be keeping a very close eye on the micro- and macro-trends and reporting on the market on a regular basis in various private and public settings.
Against this backdrop, the analysis of the Q3 2010 US wireless data market is:
Service Revenues (Slides 7, 17)
- The US Wireless data service revenues grew 7% Q/Q to $14B in Q310. The mobile data revenues for the US market are likely to reach $55B in 2010.
- Verizon and AT&T accounted for 85% of the increase in data revenues in Q3 2010.
- T-Mobile’s 3G drive is starting to pay off. While the postpaid net-adds were still in the red, its data growth is starting to match with its peers. The 21% 3G smartphone base definitely helps.
- AT&T and Verizon now account for 70% of the market data services revenues and 62% of the subscription base.
ARPU (Slides 8-11)
- The Overall ARPU decreased by $0.17. Average voice ARPU declined by $0.99 while the average data ARPU grew by $0.82 or 5% Q/Q.
- The average industry percentage contribution of data to overall ARPU is now 33% in Q310.
- Verizon led in data ARPU with $18.61 followed by AT&T and Sprint. In terms of % contribution, all the top three operators exceeded the 30% mark. T-Mobile ended the quarter with approximately 27% of its revenue coming from data services.
Subscribers (Slides 12-15)
- Helped by the growth in connected devices, the overall net-adds increased by 4.5M.
- For the fourth straight quarter, AT&T reported more net-adds from connected devices than postpaid subs. Connected devices are now 8% of AT&T’s subscription base.
- Overall, Verizon and AT&T are tied in terms of total connected devices on the network thought AT&T has a much more diverse and revenue-rich base.
- The connected device segment grew 12% Q/Q and 42% Y/Y.
- Sprint extended its streak of positive net-adds to two quarters by adding over 600 subs while T-Mobile reversed its customer losing streak thanks to the growth in the prepaid and connected devices segments.
- The national prepaid penetration is touching 20%.
Applications and Services
- Non-messaging services continues to grab 60-65% of the data revenues for the US carriers.
- There is a significant shift taking place in terms of app revenues. In 2010, there will be more revenues generated (globally) from off-deck than on-deck for the first time and while the on-deck revenues are in billions, the decline trend looks irreversible. In the US, this shift will occur next year. (We released our mobile apps economy research paper earlier this year)
- The usage and data consumption trends are enabling carriers to accelerate their 3.5G/4G plans and develop long-term business and technical strategies.
Handsets
- Nokia sold 110.4M units in Q3 2010 amounting for 32% of the market share. Samsung continues to be one of the most agile players shipping a whopping 71.4M for a 21% share of the market. Apple also edged past RIM to be in the top 5.
- While rest of the industry counts units, Apple counts $ and leads in the revenue share. It shipped 9.1M iPhones in Q3 despite the backlash over the antenna design.
Data Traffic (Slide 16)
· As we noted in our previous updates, the data traffic is now significantly more than the voice traffic. By end of 2010, we expect the average US consumer was consuming approximately 325 MB/mo up 112% in 12 months. The good news is that there are several solutions available and are being invented that will help manage the data growth starting with the tiered pricing plans.
Your feedback is always welcome.
Thanks.
Chetan Sharma
We will be keeping a close eye on the trends in the wireless data sector in our blog, twitter feeds, future research reports, and articles. The next US Wireless Data Market update will be released in Mar 2011. The next Global Wireless Data Market update will be issued in Dec 2010. Be sure to participate in our annual mobile industry predictions survey coming out in Dec 2010.
Disclaimer: Some of the companies mentioned in this paper are our clients.
CTIA Enterprise and Applications 2010 Wrap-up October 11, 2010
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, ARPU, CTIA, Enterprise Mobility, European Wireless Market, Indian Wireless Market, Japan Wireless Market, Location Based Services, MVNO, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Content, Mobile Future Forward, Privacy, Speaking Engagements, US Wireless Market, WiMax, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , add a commentCTIA Enterprise and Applications 2010 Wrap-up
http://www.chetansharma.com/ctiaenterprise2010.htm
Déjà vu - the experience of thinking that the current CTIA had occurred before.
This note summarizes the observations and opinions from the event, discussions, and briefings from the CTIA event that just concluded in San Francisco.
The Mobile Ecosystem
For me, the proceedings started with my talk “Mobile Apps: The Big Picture.” I generally start my talks these days by explaining the complexity of the mobile ecosystem. The traditional value-chains are morphing (and some cases being decimated) and the new ones are getting coalesced very fast. It is hard to summarize without going into the intricacies and the dynamic nature of the game. (I will be expanding on this theme again during my talk at University of Oxford this friday)
It is like a long marathon composed of 100m sprints where new players can enter and leave midstream. Players can merge en route to gain strength and speed or blow up before reaching the next 100m. The friends in this segment of the race might turn into competitors in the next segment. To throw a wrinkle into the mix, regulators or any one player can change the rules of the game such that 100m can become 50m or 200m and the players have to adapt and respond accordingly.
The race is in the open so the weather elements can impact but doesn’t stop the race. In such a brutally competitive environment, only the players who are super-agile or super-innovative or both have enough juice left to compete effectively in the next leg of the marathon. The successful ones are those where the C-suite and the troops are watching the KPIs of each step at the granular level so they have real-time intelligence of taking the next stride.
It requires the perfect blend of Usain Bolt and Samuel Wanjiru to compete in the “new” mobile landscape.
For example, Samsung, HTC, and Motorola (recently) have adapted remarkably well to this fast-paced marathon but their friendly rival LG has suffered and will need some time to regroup and be a force again. Microsoft faltered and didn’t adapt while new entrants like Apple and Google set the terms of the race. Watch out for what Facebook does in the space. Given their scale, their user understanding, and their product portfolio, if they execute certain elements of their strategy right, Facebook can be front runner in this ecosystem.
Some of the operators who have traditionally felt safe on their home turf are getting challenged. They are reinvigorating the industry segments they could have dominated before though it is probably too late in some areas.
Mobile Enterprise - The unglamorous cousin of the consumer segment
Enterprise is hot again. AT&T and Sprint have become very focused on becoming the “total solution providers” vs. just providing data subscriptions and devices. A&T is making a big push for the enterprise market and showcased several of its wins in the healthcare, education, retail, shipping, and other verticals. As I have talked about before, (mobile platform will) let a thousand industries bloom! Cloud computing is another area where we are going to see some interesting developments over the course of next 6 months (I will be moderating a panel on Mobile Cloud Computing at the upcoming Open Mobile Summit in Nov)
LTE
At CTIA, Verizon formally announced their LTE plans with almost 40 markets. It has moved aggressively in the last 24 months to get the network and slew of devices ready. Verizon’s marketing machine will let loose come Christmas and CES. AT&T also announced its “LTE ready” devices.
Mobile Devices: Competitive landscape
iPhone is likely to be launched on a second US carrier in Jan and is going to offer first true iPhone vs. Android test. In the meantime, a stable of Windows Phone 7 launched today after the announcement 8 months back in Barcelona. I do like a fresh approach to UI design akin to flipboardification of the apps icon-based layout (which is so desktopish). Things started to move in this direction with Motorola Blur last year and INQ a bit earlier.
The question is not if Microsoft has done a good job with WP7. It has. The question is - how soon does Microsoft come with its second round of handsets and software upgrades? And how soon will it be able to sign up additional OEMs. Remember, a few extra hops doesn’t guarantee unfair competitive advantage for the next 100m. Microsoft is starting from 0 and will have to execute on all fronts to be considered a serious contender come 2011 Christmas season. Finally, there is always room for another player, another platform. These things go in cycles. The trick is to capitalize on your opportunity and not be the one left standing when the music stops.
Coming back to my talk, I do think that an analytics driven UI is where we will end up on the smartphone UI and the whole debate around “mobile web vs apps” will be rendered moot to some extent. I expect Apple will come out with its iteration of the next generation UI soon.
Connected Devices
Mobile as a platform is maturing and we can see this in the growth in connected devices and vertically focused solutions - healthcare, energy, education, etc. The fact that the connected devices have become the next battle ground was clear from the fact that Ford had a major presence at the show. Their telematics strategy is very well executed. In our own work in the space, there is some cool stuff that is going to get rolled out in the next 24 months. Secondly, Samsung was displaying its tablet as if it was the only device it built. Apple has created a new category and others are lining up to cash in.
Mobile Apps vs. Web
The noise around “mobile apps vs. web” is reaching a fervent pitch. It is rather a silly debate. Developer care about reach, revenue potential, and the cost of the reach. Users care about the best user experience and cheapest access. Ecosystems are built around these two simple notions. Recent data from Comscore revealed something interesting. Looking at the smartphone data between apps and browser, while overall, the apps usage was higher compared to that of the browser, browser was considered a better way to navigate in various categories like news, search, and social networking by a good margin. However, games which happens to be generating the lion share of the apps revenue will continue to be a native play for some time to come because developers don’t want to compromise and the browsers are not there yet.
Over all, great to catch-up with friends and colleagues. CTIA, thanks for the networking party. 2011 looks pretty darn interesting already (we will be discussing the trends and opportunities in 2011 in our upcoming Mobile Breakfast Series event on Dec 8th)
Some of the other news worthy items were:
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Sprint launched Sprint ID that helps customize the clutter on the device. Again, the limitations of the icon based UI are becoming clearer.
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Androids keep multiplying like gremlins. Motorola launched a series of Android devices, some squarely focused on the enterprise.
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CTIA released its semi-annual industry survey results: 293M subs, $79B in rev in first 6 months, data revs $25B up 12.4% in the first 6 months. Capital investment of $21.6B in last 12 months. SMS traffic in June 10 - 173B.
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Some are realizing that a flatter network architecture is needed to manage data growth and margins. We have written extensively about this subject in our Yottabyte Series.
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In a show devoid of cool demos, OpenMarket demoed interaction with the vending machine using a mobile device something Finns have been doing for a decade.
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NFC was barely discussed but if all things line up, it could be one of the top stories of 2011.
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More CTIA coverage at Wireless Week, Moconews, RCR Wireless, CNET, etc.
Your feedback is always welcome.
Thanks.
Chetan Sharma
We will be keeping a close eye on the trends in the wireless data sector in our blog, twitter feeds, future research reports, and articles. The next US Wireless Data Market update will be released in Nov 2010. The next Global Wireless Data Market update will be issued in Oct 2010.
Disclaimer: Some of the companies mentioned in this paper are our clients.
Mobile Future Forward 2010 Summit Summary September 20, 2010
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, BRIC, Carriers, Enterprise Mobility, European Wireless Market, Indian Wireless Market, Japan Wireless Market, Location Based Services, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Event, Mobile Future, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile Gaming, Mobile Search, Mobile Traffic, Mobile Wallet, Networks, Partnership, Patents, Privacy, Smart Phones, Speaking Engagements, Student Paper Contest, US Wireless Market, Wi-Fi, WiMax, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , 1 comment so far
Summit Summary
In proud partnership with
Amdocs, Millennial Media, Real Networks, ZTE, Clearwire, Ericsson, Openmarket, Bango, Intel, Openwave, Wavefront, and Department of Commerce
Earlier this month, Chetan Sharma Consulting hosted its first mobile thought leadership executive summit – Mobile Future Forward. The sold-out event attracted leaders from the global mobile industry across the ecosystem to discuss and debate the future of mobile. This note summarizes the various discussions from the summit.
Some of the key themes discussed by the speakers and panelists were:
1. The Mobile Ecosystem is becoming more complex and competitive by the day
2. Broadband is exploding around the globe, Nation’s competitiveness and prosperity is being defined by the quality and depth of Broadband
3. Mobile Device is becoming central to our existence
4. Understand the user, generational usage patterns, geographical differences and customs
5. Communication modes are evolving and morphing rapidly
6. Emerging Devices are taking the lion of share of growth in some western markets
7. Given the devices and networks, content, media, services are moving to the cloud
8. New experiences are being introduced that will impact monetization and interaction with computing and technology
9. World is becoming flatter by the day
10. Mobile as a platform is booming and several industry verticals are exploding
11. Context and Analytics are key currency for tomorrow
12. There is significant reallocation of revenues underway
13. The fight for developer mind share is getting intense
As technologists, we get too enamored with the technical details and specs but what’s most important is how can technologies be applied to make lives of every day consumers better. If a new solution or a service only benefits or thrills a few, it is destined to miss the mass market. No one understands the mass market better than Procter & Gamble, and no company in the world touches more consumers with more products than Procter & Gamble (with over 40-50 billion items per year). Technology plays a central role in how P&G thinks about engaging consumers. Last year, I had the privilege of spending some time with Steve David, our first keynote speaker. His understanding of the interplay between technology and consumer interaction and behavior is very deep and his enthusiasm for using technology to change the world infectious. Steve spent over 30 years at P&G , the final assignment as P&G’s CIO responsible for their Internet Strategy.
Steve laid out the case for Advocacy being the new measure of marketing. It has a lasting impact on the brand, the sales, and the relationship with the consumer. Companies who have a better understanding of the customer via sophisticated analytics and can quickly take the solutions and products that consumer want and need gain long-term competitive advantage. Insights from the market must be processed in real-time that can empower decision making at every level of the company. And mobile is central to this strategic shift. Mobile is being used to attack the counterfeit problem worldwide, in formulating personal recommendations as trust in brands erodes, in collecting analytics, and engaging interactions with products and services using NFC, etc. Steve ended with the old Chinese proverb, “When the wind changes direction, there are those who build walls and there are others who build wind mills.” What are you going to build?
Fred Devereux, President, AT&T West in his address on “The Next Big Thing” honed in on the emerging connected devices ecosystem and how AT&T is retooling itself to take advantage of the boom. The AT&T Emerging Devices organization is setup to behave and operate like a startup with hundreds of devices being approved in a short amount of time. The new generation of connected devices range from eReaders, PNDs, Telematics, Cameras, Camcorders, Picture Frames, Tablets, Tracking Devices, Gaming Devices, and Smart Meters. While the ARPU of these connection is low, the margins are high due to negligible overhead in operations, sales, and marketing. The importance of this category is evident from the research data we reported in our last quarterly report which indicated that there are more connected devices being added than postpaid net-adds and operators are starting to list them as separate line items in their financial statements. Fred also discussed AT&T’s plans to deploy LTE in 2011-.
Dr. Genevieve Bell, Fellow at Intel is one of the most fascinating anthropologists out there with an acute sense of technology evolution and how humans react and adapt to changes around them and how technology needs to adapt to humans and their needs in different habitats. She had some interesting stats from her research e.g. the household sizes vary significantly by countries – India has only 5% of the households as single-person households while France and Germany have over one third households as single-person. Boomers will represent more than half of the population of China, Japan, and EU by 2012. These demographic shifts have significant impact on how technology is used and how media is consumed. The keynote was filled with priceless anecdotes and research items that informed and gave the technologists something to think about and that the technologists are not the proxy for rest of the population. Her book “Telling Techno-Cultural Tales” is being published by MIT Press and is coming out next year. So, be on the lookout for that.
Mobile Advertising is in the news lately in the US. About 11 years ago, a young man named Takayuki Hoshuyama was making waves in the mobile advertising space. In 1999, he helped found D2Communications - a successful joint venture between the largest advertising firm in Japan - Dentsu and the largest and one of the most innovative operator on the planet - NTT DoCoMo. He was one of the original members of the Mobile Advertising Team for the i-mode service 11 years ago. In June, he was appointed CEO of D2C. Hoshuyama-san talked about the future of mobile advertising. Japanese mobile ad market is over $1B (though it represents only 1.7% of the overall ad spent) and with the advent of 4G/LTE the opportunities are enormous. Display outscores Search by 3:1 in ad revenues. Mobile is some embedded in Japanese culture that it is just assumed just like my good friend and coauthor Dr. Yasuhisa Nakamura, then CTO of NTT DoCoMo wrote back in 2002 in our book “the wireless infrastructure will become indistinguishable from air i.e. omnipresent”
Hoshuyama-san also talked about the evolving role of the operators in the ecosystem with some of them focused on becoming the cloud service providers and broadcasters.
After the keynotes, we shifted to panel discussions. The first one dealt with the disruptive forces in the ecosystem with Mike Sievert, Chief Commercial Officer, Clearwire, Lixin Cheng, CEO, ZTE USA, and Subba Rao, CEO, Tata DoCoMo – three leaders who are disrupting the status quo. All three agreed that the openness of Android will make it the most dominant OS in the coming years. Lixin talked about how the infrastructure business is becoming a software business with SDR design of technology standards and evolution. He also suggested that we as an ecosystem need to simplify the business models and the consumer purchasing process of bandwidth and connectivity before the connected device revolution takes significant hold. India is the fastest growing market but the ARPU levels are 1/10th of what they are in the US. Given that the market just spent over $100B on the 3G auction, the investment recovery model is unclear and the market is ripe for a big shakeout. Telenor, having lost over half a billion dollars is desperate to get out of the market. The pains of globalization are showing up in other regions as well. Mike mentioned the high average data consumption at Clearwire (currently at 7 GB/mo) – clearly a precursor of what’s to come (our research shows the national average was 230 MB/mo as of Q2 2010). In terms of new technology areas, the panel was interested in products that help with spectrum efficiency, reducing the cost structure, and in improving the battery performance.
As part of the Mobile Future Forward Initiative, we had also worked on two other projects:
· The Mobile Future Forward Book that consisted of thought provoking essays on the future of mobile from the speakers of the summit and
· The global student paper contest that invited the papers form university students from the around the world
It required enormous collaboration with the folks around the globe in a very short amount of time. We are very proud of the outcome.
Mobile Future Forward Book
The second project related to a limited edition book by Chetan Sharma Consulting (published by Futuretext) exclusively for the event. Some of these summit speakers put their insights and ideas on paper that resulted in this book. We are very grateful to the authors (and their respective organizations) who carved out time from their busy schedules to pen some really insightful commentary on how they see the mobile industry evolve both holistically and in the various segments of the ecosystem. While the views are quite diverse and bring together perspectives from different angles, everyone agrees, 2010-2020 will be one heck of a time period for innovation.
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The book has the following pieces: 1. The Next 10 Years - 15 Trends That Matter - Chetan Sharma 2. Sustainability in a Mobile World - Stephen David 3. Managing The Mobile Data Explosion - Wim Sweldens 4. Show Me The Money! - Brian Shepherd 5. Mobility Revolutionizing Every Product, Service, and Process - Russ McGuire 6. How Constant Connection Is Changing Our World - Ken Denman 7. 4G: The Next Big Thing - Mike Sievert 8. The Untapped Potential of Mobile Advertising and Marketing - Takayuki Hoshuyama 9. Mobile Operators are at the Center of Mobile Advertising - Krishna Vedati 10. Mobile Challenges - Three Imperatives in the Changing Game - Russ Shaw 11. Interacting With Everyday Things - Amir Mashkoori 12. In The End, It’ll All Go Through “Browse and Buy” - Anil Malhotra 13. The Future of Mobile: 5 Trends That Matter Most - Jay Emmet 14. India’s Mobile Future Forward - Subba Rao 15. Cellphone As The New Computing Platform - Sailesh Chutani 16. What 5 billion Phones Could Mean for Health Literacy - Jon Stross 17. Privacy: From Compliance To Competitive Advantage - Sarla Sharma 18. Managing Growth and Profits in the Yottabyte Era - Chetan Sharma |
We will be giving out some copies of the book during our Annual Predictions Survey in Dec, so be on the lookout for that participation request.
Student Paper Contest
Despite, the summer recess, we received an a very positive response from students around the globe. The top six entries went through rigorous scrutiny of our judges:
1. Pankaj Kedia, Head of Mobile Ecosystems, Intel
2. Subba Rao, CEO, Tata DoCoMo
3. Len Barlik, VP, Sprint Nextel
4. Jeff Giard, Director, Clearwire
5. Paul Palmieri, CEO, Millennial Media
6. Matt Oommen, CTO, Sprint Nextel
7. Paul Struthers, Head of Regional Marketing, Amdocs
The top two students were Lun Huang and Smruthi Pariccha and they were invited to join us for the event and receive their prizes.
The final ranking was as follows:
1. UWB Based on Multi-Band MC-CDMA and Magnetic Near-Field –Lun Huang, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, US
2. Ubiquitous Peer Proximity Awareness in Mobile Environments –Smruti Parichha, Dept of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, Riverside, US
As a mobile strategist, I get to see some of the cool technologies before they hit the market. For the demo this year, we selected Microvision’s cool projection technology where you can interact with the projected screen in thin air by waving hands. Yes, you got it. You had to be there to see it. It was shown for the first time to the general public and we are thankful to Selvan Vishwanathan and Andrew Rosen, the two engineers (and their colleagues) behind this exciting emerging technology that will expand the horizons of mobile interactivity and media engagement.
The afternoon sessions started delving into specific topics and details that were touched upon at the high level during the morning sessions. Each of the panels had an absolutely stellar cast who are deeply engaged in defining the mobile ecosystem right now.
Network and Mobile Data Evolution 2010-2015
Wim Sweldens, President - Wireless Division, Alcatel-Lucent,
Neville Ray, Chief Network Officer, T-Mobile,
Bob Azzi, Senior Vice President, Sprint,
Matt Bross, CTO and Vice Chairman, Huawei
Sean Cai, Vice President - Advanced Wireless Technology, ZTE,
Ken Denman, CEO, Openwave (moderator)
There is a big debate about network evolution - how fast does LTE need to come to the market? Will LTE be enough to help with the data tsunami. The consensus was a resounding No but LTE brings in some key capabilities like an all-IP network that enables new capabilities for multimedia applications and services, lowers the per bit cost, and reduces latency for superior user experience. Of course, the RAN is only part of the story, the backhaul needs to get upgraded as well to handle the load. The panel also emphasized simplicity in services without making things burdensome for the consumer with new technology. The other area of concern is of course the spectrum. Will there be ever enough spectrum? The issue is more acute for some operators. Finally, the focus need not to be on the bandwidth or the latency, from a user’s point of view, it is always about the services and things they can do with more bandwidth and lower latency.
Future of Content, Engagement, and Monetization
Louis Gump, Vice President - Mobile, CNN,
Omar Javaid, Vice President, Converged Media, Motorola (moderator),
Paul Palmieri, CEO, Millennial Media,
Rob Glaser, Chairman, Real Networks and Partner, Accel
Superphones and smartphones have changed the landscape for content, engagement and monetization. Superphones are most open and it is reflected in the results, more engagement and higher app usage. Apple/Android have also put US back in the leadership role when it comes to devices. CNN has seen high degree of non duplicated reach and reach is king when it comes to mobile advertising. The ad platforms are going into the next stage of evolution with more multimedia, better monetization opportunities, and higher value for the consumer. For content providers, ads can’t be the only strategy to generate revenue, subscriptions and/or micro transactions need to be part of the equation as well.
The Balance of Privacy and Monetization from Consumer Data
Krishna Vedati, Senior Vice President, AT&T Interactive,
Chris Murphy, Head of Digital Strategy, adidas
Dr. Nitin Shah, CEO, Feeva,
John Giere, Senior Vice President, Openwave,
Jeremy Lockhorn, Vice President - Emerging Media, Razorfish (moderator)
It is a complex issue and our insightful panel talked through the intricacies and the balance of monetizing using consumer data while meeting user’s expectations on privacy. One has to give something of value to the consumer before they trade up. Advertisers like adidas want to move from 1-2-many to 1-2-1 relationship with the consumer that increases the volume and quality of the transactions. The valuable variables to track are location, propensity to buy, past actions, traffic inputs, etc. Discovery and recommendations also become important part of the whole process. Of course, regulators are eager to jump in as well. It will be one of the key issues defining the industry landscape over the next 5 years.
mHealth - The Impact on Society and Global Health
Dr. Sailesh Chutani, CEO, Mobisante (moderator)
Jon Stross, General Manager and VP, Babycenter.com
Tim Wood, Director, Grameen Foundation
Greg Brandenberg, CEO, Columbia Basin Health Association
Dr. Suzanne Clough, Chief Medical Officer, Welldoc
mHealth is one of those areas which has been talked about for a long time and where mobile is starting to have a truly disruptive run at the industry. While the regulations and the dinosaur health care industry have been slow to adapt, there are a number of innovative companies like Welldoc, Babycenter.com, Mobisante, and others who are forcing rethink and change in the status quo. Greg’s CBHA is forced to think differently and has looked to technology to solve their challenges. Serving in the rural areas of WA state, his team has been testing out new solutions such as cell phone based ultrasound system from Mobisante that is 1/10th the cost of what GE sells for. It is much more portable and flexible and works well with the field work force. Tim’s Grameen Foundation is similarly leading the charge in nations like Ghana where mobile has been used to solve real-life health issues. Jon’s Babycenter has been expanding in other regions and increasing revenues at the same time. However, the test results and trials can still take inordinate amount of time (it was 3 years for one of the trials). The opportunity is immense but regulators, healthcare industry, pharma giants, and the rest are starting to come to grips with the role that mobile can play in transforming lives and P&Ls.
Mobile Cloud Computing - At the Tipping Point?
Hank Skorny, Senior Vice President - Media Cloud Computing, Real Networks
Brian Shepherd, President - Mobile Services and Marketing, Amdocs
Marianne Marck, Senior Vice President, BlueNile
Mike Wolf, Vice President - Research, GigaOM (moderator)
Erez Yarkoni, Chief Information Officer, T-Mobile
Cloud is changing IT and cloud is going to change mobile media. It helps take out some of the complexities of media consumption, management, and sharing for the consumers and provides a lower cost structures for the media companies. There are opportunities for operators to provide cloud based services at many levels - storage, media, billing, bandwidth, profile, analytics, network intelligence and so on and so forth. Some are easier to implement while others requires more investment and change in DNA. From a developer’s perspective, cloud based services will be ideal to increase reach but we are not there yet as the capabilities of the browser are not comparable to the native environment on platforms like iOS and Android. Better user experience is essential and developers won’t compromise.
Evolution of Communication and Social Interaction
Mario Queiroz, Vice President - Product Management, Google
David Weiden, General Partner, Khosla Ventures
Robin Schofeld, Principal, Booz&Co (moderator)
Erick Tseng, Head of Mobile, Facebook
Pankaj Kedia, Head of Mobile Ecosystems, Intel
The panel delved into how the communication ecosystems might evolve. While there is discussion about open and closed (too much at times), it is about executing on a strategy that touches the most number of consumers. The closed gardens of Apple is quite dominating and so is the evolving Android ecosystem which is relatively open. At the end of the day, developers are looking to make a buck with the least amount of resources and reach the most of amount of users. Cloud based communications services are about to change the landscape in a big way. Google and Facebook both have had good successes and both suggested that we are just getting started and more innovation is going to come in the form of personalization and social interaction. Operators while ceding some of the communication territory can still have a viable broadband business. As far as social on mobile is concerned, we are still in the early days with lots of opportunities to enhance and engage.
Internet of Things - Emerging Ecosystems
Amir Mashkoori, CEO, Kovio
Danny Bowman, President - Integrated Solutions Group, Sprint
Mark Selby, Vice President - Industry Collaboration, Nokia
Chetan Sharma, President, Chetan Sharma Consulting (moderator)
Abhi Ingle, Vice President - Industry & Mobility Application Solutions, AT&T
Peter Koo, Vice President, Ericsson
The fact that there are more mobile phones than toothbrush brings home the point of the pervasiveness of mobile around the globe. The panel gave several examples of how “connectedness” is spreading across other electronic devices as well e.g. in Netherlands, 30K home care workers are equipped with NFC enabled devices which help interact with the patients (opens the door as well) without the need for paperwork, the records, helps with navigation. Overall result - happier workers, higher efficiency, and reduced carbon emission. The mobility for “connected devices” will try to leverage all RF radios as needed - 3G, 4G, Bluetooth, WiFi, Zigby, etc. Digital signage is emerging as a new area for consumer interaction and information. Some of the industries are on the verge of significant change - e.g. insurance where car insurance rates are given based on driving habits learned via telemetry vs. the old actuary table based rating systems. NFC is also enabling a lot of commerce opportunities by bringing the online world together with the physical world. However, as the ecosystem evolves, we need to also worry about QoS, security, and reliability concerns that various vertical industries have. Of course, the net-neutrality debate impacts the evolution. There are several scenarios where prioritization of data traffic is essential in emergency situations (ambulance transmission, fire fighting, etc.).
At the Intersection of Gaming, Social, and Commerce
Tim Chang, Partner, NVP (moderator)
Prashant Fuloria, Director - Facebook Credits, Facebook
David Marcus, CEO, Zong
Andrew Lacy, Senior Vice President, Disney Games
Alex Tokman, CEO, Microvision
Micro transactions is the new currency that scales up to billions of dollars in gaming and social networking. Free drives interest and the core 2-5% drive the revenues. If you ask for payment up front, virality component fizzles and the longevity declines. iTunes has been the gold standard for payments, carrier billing is starting to shape up and it will benefit the developers. HTML5+ in theory makes sense and is nice enhancement but the app experience is compelling for users. Discovery continues to be the sore spot and the burning opportunity. Whichever platform and mode of operation helps developers make more money, that’s where the momentum will shift. Today it is the iPhone but rival models are starting to pop up.
Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped in making Mobile Future Forward successful especially the sponsors (Amdocs, Millennial Media, Real Networks, ZTE, Clearwire, Ericsson, OpenMarket, Bango, Intel, Openwave, Wavefront, and Department of Commerce), participants, the moderators, and the speakers. Thanks to Caroline Lewko and David Smith for taking good notes. Planning for Mobile Future Forward 2011 is underway. Until then, best wishes and good luck in your pursuits, and we hope to see you next year. Thank You.
Mobile Future Forward – Student Paper Contest Results Announced August 15, 2010
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, ARPU, Mobile Applications, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Event, Mobile Future, Mobile Future Forward, Smart Phones, Speaking Engagements, Student Paper Contest, US Wireless Market, VoIP, Wi-Fi, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , 1 comment so far 
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On behalf of the Mobile Future Forward team, Intel – the contest sponsors, and the esteem panel of Judges from the mobile industry, I would like to thank all the students who participated in our inaugural “Student Paper Contest.” Despite the summer recess and only one month of preparation time, we got an overwhelmingly positive response from students in 9 different countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.
We very much appreciate the time and energy the students put in producing some exceptional papers that are indicative of their potential in the mobile space in the coming days.
We went through a rigorous selection process and our elite jury panel helped us pick and rank the top 6 papers. The contest judges were:
1. Pankaj Kedia, Head of Mobile Ecosystems, Intel
2. Subba Rao, CEO, Tata DoCoMo
3. Len Barlik, VP, Sprint Nextel
4. Jeff Giard, Director, Clearwire
5. Paul Palmieri, CEO, Millennial Media
6. Matt Oommen, CTO, Sprint Nextel
7. Paul Struthers, Head of Regional Marketing, Amdocs
The final ranking of the papers was as follows:
1. UWB Based on Multi-Band MC-CDMA and Magnetic Near-Field – Lun Huang, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, US
2. Ubiquitous Peer Proximity Awareness in Mobile Environments – Smruti Parichha, Dept of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, Riverside, US
3. Ubiquitous Augmented Reality – Anna Maria Ksiezopolska, Institute of System Level Integration – iSLI, University of Edinburgh, UK
4. Mobile Communications & Accessibility for Blind Users – M Kazi M. Yakoob, Chan Naseeb, and Hafiz Qasim, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
5. Mobile Future – Free CPU Everywhere – Ren C. Luo and CJ Chi, Intelligent Robot and Automation Lab, EE Dept, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
6. Serving the Poor Farmers by Mobile Agricultural Information: Quality of Service Assessment to Empower Rural Bangladesh – Mohammed Upal, Graduate School of Management, International University of Japan, Japan
Lun Huang and Smruti Parichha are being invited to meet with the senior executives in the mobile industry and attend the Mobile Future Forward conference. Rest of the authors in the top 6 will receive a book on mobile computing.
Abstracts of the winning papers are:
UWB Based on Multi-Band MC-CDMA and Magnetic Near-Field – Lun Huang, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, US
Since the FCC opened up the spectrum for Ultra Wide Band (UWB) operation in the 3.1 to 10.6 GHz range, several standards have been proposed to realize moderate and high rate short-range communication systems. Under the WiMedia and Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) umbrella [1][2], industry incorporated UWB as the technology to achieve high data rates up to 480Mbps for certain applications, such as wireless USB v2.0 and Laptop to HDTV audio/video extenders. In this paper, a novel UWB based on Affine Orthogonal Transform MC-CDMA and Magnetic near-field is introduced. The proposed new scheme is capable of improving the spectrum and power efficiency while provide good wireless link quality.
Ubiquitous Peer Proximity Awareness in Mobile Environments – Smruti Parichha, Dept of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, Riverside, US
This paper proposes the idea of enabling all WiFi capable consumer devices with the knowledge of the locations of peer devices in their network neighborhood. We will use the term “peer-proximity awareness” to describe the ability to discover locations of peers and update this knowledge with changes in the network neighborhood. GPS functionality enables a device to locate its own coordinates in outdoor environments. Peer-proximity awareness is meant to provide knowledge of the location of peer devices with respect to itself in indoor environments, where mobile wireless devices are extensively used, but GPS capability is of little help. The accuracy in peer-proximity awareness is intended to be a few meters, or even sub-meter level, depending on the application. We will focus on extremely interesting applications that can leverage peer proximity awareness and show that it has great potential in the future of the mobile market.
Congrats to the winners and everyone who contributed to the process.
Thanks to all the students and their academic institutions for participating. I am sure our paths will cross again.
Best wishes for their successful academic and professional careers.
US Mobile Data Market Update Q2 2010 August 10, 2010
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, ARPU, BRIC, CTIA, Enterprise Mobility, European Wireless Market, IP Strategy, Indian Wireless Market, Location Based Services, M&A, Mergers and Acquisitions, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Event, Mobile Future, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile Gaming, Mobile Search, Mobile Wallet, Music Player, Networks, Speaking Engagements, Speech Recognition, US Wireless Market, Unified Messaging, Usability, VoIP, Wi-Fi, WiMax, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , 2 commentsUS Mobile Data Market Update Q2 2010
http://chetansharma.com/usmarketupdateq22010.htm
Executive Summary
The US wireless data market grew 6% Q/Q and 22% Y/Y to exceed $13.2B in mobile data service revenues in Q2 2010 - on track so far to meet our initial estimate of $54B for the year.
Having narrowly edged NTT DoCoMo last quarter for the first time, Verizon Wireless maintained its number one ranking for the 1H 2010 in terms of the operator with the most mobile data revenues (though the difference was thinner than the amoeba membrane). The total wireless connections for Verizon were almost 100M with 92.1M being the traditional subscriber base. Rest of the 3 top US operators also maintained leading positions amongst the top 10 global mobile data operators.
Sprint had the first positive netadd quarter in 3 years and has been slowly and steadily turning the ship around. T-Mobile did better on the postpaid netadds but overall additions declined again. The larger question for the market is if 4 large players can stay competitive. Generally, the answer is no. But these are different times and there are a number of permutations and combinations that are possible.
The US subscription penetration crossed 95% at the end of Q2 2010. If we take out the demographics of 5 yrs and younger, the mobile penetration is now past 100%. While the traditional net-adds have been slowing, the “connected device” segment is picking up so much that both AT&T and Verizon added more connected devices than postpaid subs in Q2 2010. Given the slow postpaid growth, operators are fiercely competing in prepaid, enterprise, connected devices, and M2M segments.
Data traffic continued to increase across all networks. By 1H 2010, the average US consumer was consuming approximately 230 MB/mo up 50% in 6 months. US has become ground zero for mobile broadband consumption and data traffic management evolution. While it lags Japan and Korea in 3G penetration by a distance, due to higher penetration of smartphones and datacards, the consumption is much higher than its Asian counterparts. Given that it is also becoming the largest deployment base for HSPA+ and LTE, most of the cutting edge research in areas of data management and experimentation with policy, regulations, strategy, and business models is taking place in the networks of the US operators and keenly watched by players across the global ecosystem.
As we had forecasted, the tiered pricing structure for mobile broadband touched the US shores with AT&T becoming the first major operator to change its pricing plan based on consumer consumption. We will see the pricing evolve over the next 2-4 quarters as the US mobile ecosystem adjusts to the new realities and strategies for mobile data consumption.
In the connected device category, iPad like its flashy cousin dominated the headlines, the sales numbers, and the industry profits. The device sent every slate maker back to the drawing board, many projects were cancelled and strategies are still being formulated to capture a new burgeoning space and Apple again has a massive lead of mindshare and pocketbook.
Kids of the now generation are growing with connected electronics that is fundamentally altering the behaviors and expectations of interaction, communication, consumption, and monetization.
All this has setup an absolutely fascinating period in the communication/computing industry. Convergence is everywhere and is leading to fundamental reset of the value chains and ecosystems. We are going to be discussing the ins and outs of how the industry is going to evolve in the next decade in our Sept 8th event – Mobile Future Forward which is bringing exceptional industry thought-leaders, inventors, and doers to brainstorm, discuss, and debate what’s next. Hope you can join the discussion.
What to expect in the coming months?
31% of the US subscription base is now smartphones.
The pace of product introduction is accelerating with each quarter. Devices of all shapes and sizes are coming into the market literally every week. Players are having to re-evaluate their businesses and long-term strategies. Several new impressive devices got introduced during the course of 1H of 2010 including the iPad and EVO.
There are several players whose future is at stake (to put it mildly). The competition has grown fierce and companies are finding it hard to take ideas from R&D to products in market in a short amount of time.
Microsoft announced its comeback with the W7 commercial launch imminent. The change in UI was refreshing and the expectations are quite high. W7 v2 is likely around the corner to update on the flaws of v1. HP acquired Palm in an attempt to become relevant again in the mobile device space. It has been an action packed 1H 2010 and we can expect more of the same for the remainder of the year.
2010 has also been active on the regulatory front as the national broadband plan was unveiled in March and the subsequent debate over the course of nations broadband future kept the spectrum, net-neutrality, and exclusivity issues at the forefront.
To start planning for 4G, 5G, and beyond, US should think about rolling a 50 year broadband plan. While more spectrum is always helpful, will we have all the spectrum we need in 2050? or do we need to invent new technologies and business models that use spectrum more wisely? This topic will keep the industry occupied for some time to come. (We will be going in-depth into this subject at our Sept event with some very senior and experienced executives)
2010 is also the year of network rollouts. T-Mobile has been rolling out HSPA+ at an impressive rate, Clearwire announced its intention to move to LTE, Verizon is betting big on LTE and looking for competitive marketing advantage over the course of the next 12 months. AT&T has been adding backhaul, upgrading to HSPA+ and planning for LTE all at once. Even the smaller carriers like MetroPCS are looking for competitive advantage with quicker LTE launch and beat others by carrying the first LTE smartphone. (We will be releasing the next edition of our “State of the “Mobile” Broadband Nation” paper later this year)
As we had mentioned last year, the mobile data traffic kept on growing disproportional to the revenues. A series of solutions have come into the market from players big and small. We released the second edition of our in-depth research paper on data growth - "Managing Growth and Profits in the Yottabyte Era" last quarter.
We will be keeping a very close eye on the micro- and macro-trends and reporting on the market on a regular basis in various private and public settings.
Against this backdrop, the analysis of the Q2 2010 US wireless data market is:
Service Revenues (Slides 7, 16)
- The US Wireless data service revenues grew 6% Q/Q to $13.2B in Q210. Compared to Q209, the mobile data service revenues grew 22%.
- Verizon and AT&T accounted for 75% of the increase in data revenues in Q2 2010.
- T-Mobile’s 3G drive is starting to pay off. While the net-adds were still in the red, its data growth is starting to match with its peers. The 20% 3G smartphone base definitely helps.
- Verizon Wireless again nudged past NTT DoCoMo in overall mobile data revenues by a whisker. By the end of the year, China Mobile and AT&T are also likely to cross their Japanese counterpart in quarterly mobile data service revenues.
- AT&T and Verizon now account for 70% of the market data services revenues and 62% of the subscription base.
ARPU (Slides 8-11)
- The Overall ARPU increased by $0.46 reversing the declining trend of the past three quarters. Average voice ARPU declined by $0.13 while the average data ARPU grew by $0.58 or 4% Q/Q.
- The average industry percentage contribution of data to overall ARPU is now 31% in Q210.
- Verizon led in data ARPU with $17.37 followed by AT&T and Sprint. In terms of % contribution, all the top three operators exceeded the 30% mark. T-Mobile ended the quarter with approximately 25% of its revenue coming from data services.
Subscribers (Slides 12-14)
- Overall netadds stayed stable at just over 3M with AT&T gaining the lion-share (though their count now includes the connected devices while other operators don’t specifically include that in the calculations).
- The texting see-saw between US and Philippines continued in Q210. US averaged around 639 messages/user/mo marginally behind Philippines.
- For the third straight quarter, AT&T reported more net-adds from connected devices than postpaid subs. Connected devices are now 7% of AT&T’s subscription base.
- Sprint got back into the positive net-adds territory again after 3 years. T-Mobile’s net-adds continued to decline. T-Mobile’s 20% and Sprint’s 23% subscriber base is now prepaid. The national prepaid penetration is touching 20%.
Applications and Services
- Non-messaging services continues to grab 60-65% of the data revenues for the US carriers.
- There is a significant shift taking place in terms of app revenues. In 2010, there will be more revenues generated (globally) from off-deck than on-deck for the first time and while the on-deck revenues are in billions, the decline trend looks irreversible. In the US, this shift will occur next year. (We released our mobile apps economy research paper earlier this year)
- The usage and data consumption trends are enabling carriers to accelerate their 3.5G/4G plans and develop long-term business and technical strategies.
Handsets
- Nokia sold 111M units in Q2 2010 amounting for 36% of the market share. Samsung again had a solid quarter with 64M devices sold with the share at 21%. LG Electronics at 10%, Sony Ericsson and RIM at 3.6% rounded up the top 5.
- Apple shipped 8.4M iPhones in Q2 but the criticism over the antenna design took some shine out from yet another home run.
- Smartphone penetration increased to 31% in the US market
Data Traffic (Slide 15)
· As we noted in our last update, the data traffic is now significantly more than the voice traffic. By 1H 2010, the average US consumer was consuming approximately 230 MB/mo up 50% in 6 months. The good news is that there are several solutions available and are being invented that will help manage the data growth starting with the tiered pricing plans.
To discuss all these trends and more, we are putting together a unique Mobile Future Forward Executive Summit and are fortunate to have the company of some of the sharpest minds in the industry, folks who both have the vision to shape the evolution and the authority to invest billions of dollars this decade to make things happen. Hope to see you in Seattle on Sept 8th.
Abhi Ingle, VP, AT&T; Amir Mashkoori, CEO, Kovio; Anand Chandrasekhar, SVP & GM, Intel; Bob Azzi, SVP - Network, Sprint Nextel; Christopher Dean, Chief Strategy Officer, Skype; Danny Bowman, President, Sprint Nextel; David Weiden, General Partner, Khosla Ventures; Dr. Boris Nikolic, Sr. Program Officer, Global Health & Discovery, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Dr. Genevieve Bell, Intel Fellow & Director, User Experience, Intel; Dr. Greg Brandenberg, CEO, Columbia Basin Health Association; Dr. Sailesh Chutani, CEO, Mobisante; Dr. Suzanne Clough, Chief Medical Officer, WellDoc; Erick Tseng, Head of Mobile, Facebook; Glenn Lurie, President, AT&T; Hank Skorny, SVP, Media Mobile Cloud Computing, Real Networks; Jack Kennedy, EVP, News Corp; Joe Sims, Lead Partner - Digital Convergence , Booz & Company; Jon Stross, VP & GM - Babycenter, Johnson & Johnson; Ken Denman, CEO, Openwave; Krishna Vedati, SVP & GM - Mobile, AT&T Interactive; Lirong Shi, President, ZTE; Louis Gump, VP Mobile, CNN; Mario Queiroz, VP - Product Management - Android, Google; Mark Selby, VP, Nokia; Matt Bross, CTO and Vice Chairman, Huawei; Michael Sievert, Chief Commercial Officer, Clearwire; Neville Ray, Chief Network Officer, T-Mobile ; Omar Javaid, CEO, BBDO; Paul Palmieri, Founder and CEO, Millennial Media; Rob Glaser, Chairman, Real Networks and Partner, Accel; Sean Cai, VP - Advanced Technology, ZTE; Stephen David, Former CIO, Proctor & Gamble; Subba Rao, CEO, TataDoCoMo; Takayuki Hoshuyama, CEO D2 Communications; Tim Chang, Partner, NVP;Tony Lewis, VP, Verizon; Wim Sweldens, President, Alcatel-Lucent
Each panel discussion will involve luminaries/experts on specific topics, for e.g.
Opportunities in Mobile
Mike Sievert, CCO, Clearwire
Dr. Genevieve Bell, Fellow, Intel
Shi Lirong, President, ZTE
Subba Rao, CEO, Tata DoCoMo
Evolution of Communication/ Engagement
Christopher Dean, Chief Strategy Officer, Skype
Erick Tseng, Head of Mobile, Facebook
Mario Queiroz, VP, Google
David Weiden, General Partner, Khosla Ventures
The size of the panel will be small and the time duration long so we can delve deep into the issues and questions. For more panel, speaker, sponsor, and program details, please visithttp://www.mobilefutureforward.com
Your feedback is always welcome.
Thanks.
Chetan Sharma
We will be keeping a close eye on the trends in the wireless data sector in our blog, twitter feeds, future research reports, and articles. The next US Wireless Data Market update will be released in Nov 2010. The next Global Wireless Data Market update will be issued in Sept 2010.
Disclaimer: Some of the companies mentioned in this paper are our clients.
Mobile Industry 1H 2010 Assessment July 8, 2010
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, BRIC, CTIA, Carnival of Mobilists, Carriers, Enterprise Mobility, European Wireless Market, Gaming, Indian Wireless Market, Japan Wireless Market, M&A, MVNO, Mergers and Acquisitions, Microsoft Mobile, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Event, Mobile Future, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile Gaming, Mobile Search, Mobile TV, Mobile Traffic, Partnership, Smart Phones, Speaking Engagements, Strategy, US Wireless Market, Usability, VoIP, Wi-Fi, WiMax, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , 2 commentsMobile Industry 1H 2010 Assessment
http://chetansharma.com/1H10mobileassessment.htm
As the mobile world approaches the 5 billion subscription landmark, it is time to do a half yearly assessment of 2010. We will have our official Q2 2010 analysis for the US market in Aug and the global analysis for 1H 2010 in Sept after all the numbers are in. In the meantime, it might be worthwhile to take a stock of the first 6 months, the ensuing trends and what they mean for the long-term.
Mobile Ecosystem has become much more complex
In case you didn’t notice, the competitive landscape has changed significantly over the last 6-12 months. The fine line between partners and competitors can get obliterated in a quarter. Apple is competing with Cisco, Comcast is going after AT&T’s business, Visa and Verizon want to be the payment channel of choice, Amazon is gunning for Microsoft’s enterprise business, Kodak is competing with Yahoo, so on and so forth. One product launch, one acquisition, can change the game in an instant. And this is only the beginning.
Network evolution: more capacity, more bandwidth, tremendous usage
We have covered this topic in detail in our paper - Managing growth and profits in the Yottabyte era. As we had predicted, the tiering of pricing plan has started in the US which is actually a good thing. It will force some discipline and technology innovation to solve the longer-term problem of network congestion. While AT&T got things in motion, market forces will take care of the right pricing and GB levels in the coming months. Data consumption on TeliaSonera and Clearwire’s network is a good indicator of what’s to come with 3-4x the usage compared to its counterparts.
New sources of revenue: mobile advertising, commerce, and more
Regular readers know that we have been bullish on the mobile advertising space for a long time. Over the last 6 months or so, some of the pieces are coming together though significant amount of work remains. Sergio Zyman, former CMO of Coca Cola once said “There is only one rule: advertising must sell.” And nothing will sell better than mobile. Period. While North America and Western Europe have been slow to wake up to the mobile commerce opportunities, in Japan, it is already a multi-billion dollar industry. Several trials are underway that are going to help open up the western market in the next 12 months for significant opportunities. In fact, the pie for the mobile services will keep on growing bigger but so will the number of players who want a piece of it. This will set up an interesting tug-of-war for the next couple of years
It’s the iPhone, dude!
Just when the competitors think they are all caught up with Apple, Steve Jobs and co. releases a new product that raises the bar further. Google, Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola have done well in emulating Apple while Microsoft and Nokia have fallen behind. The embarrassing launch and demise of KIN is a example of how confused things are for some of the players. While both Microsoft and Nokia are capable for mounting good comebacks, it will take more than an org change and a sprinkle of holy water. Android will easily outsell iPhone just by the law of arithmetic but Apple’s secret weapon is iTunes. With over 150M billing relationships, it has fostered a great apps ecosystem that others will find hard to replicate entirely. While some point to Apple’s tiny marketshare, wall street looks at the fat margins - rewarding Apple by making it the most valuable technology company surpassing Microsoft in a major tech tremor. Google has run the mobile chess game with great acumen so far. Despite the Nexus experiment, the explosion of the superphone category has gone according to the plan. Overall, most of the western operators are selling smartphones at 50%+ levels each quarter.
Always On Real-Time Access
The always-connected vision of the late Mark Weiser is finally approaching some realization. Mobile is so perfectly suited for cloud computing. The younger generation is growing with the expectation that they can get access to any content from any device anywhere. The constraints and friction that doesn’t allow them to do that is just not acceptable. As such, the mobile industry is scrambling to provide tools and technologies that help the digerati access content at will. All this has to be designed and developed against the current network, content, and device constraints and evolution paths. Whether it is access to music or movies for a 15 year old or availability of the entire corporate knowledgebase, information will need to be available at a touch of a button. Companies big and small are investing in the infrastructure and software tools to make this happen. We are likely to see some interesting launches in the next 12 months.
Battle for the analytical mind - data, context and intelligence drives everything
Many people don’t realize that the battle for the consumer of 2015-2020 has already begun. The company that has the best understanding about the most consumers will have a pole position in the mobile ecosystem. Players like Google, Apple, Amazon, Mastercard, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, China Mobile, Disney, AT&T, Vodafone, Motorola, and others are amassing a lot of information on individuals. Besides Google and Apple, Facebook has quietly become one of the most important players in the mobile ecosystem with its phenomenal reach across many countries, tremendous stickiness of the app, and innovative onboarding process of the carriers. Of course, data is a double edged sword - it can provide enormous benefits to consumers in terms of intelligence, experience, and engagement and can also prove to be problematic when privacy and data breaches happen. In fact, that will be one of the tightest ropes many including the regulators will have to walk this decade - figuring out what they call in Swedish - logam - the right balance.
Apps vs. the Web
Recently, the ecosystem has been more enamored with the apps vs. the web debate than the early departure of Brazil and Argentina from the world cup. It is rather a silly debate. As we mentioned in our apps economy paper, both worlds will coexist for a long time. What matters for the developers is the “reach” of a certain platform or technology and the “cost” and “potential” of that reach. For the user, the only thing that matters is what’s available on “their” device. Obviously, the capabilities of the mobile browser will grow over time and it will make more sense to build certain category of applications for the web vs. on the native platforms but developers live and die in the present.
Internet of Things
Nokia took the leadership stance of announcing that all of their smartphones by the next year will have NFC. You can expect pretty much all major OEMs following the same trend which means that hundreds of millions of devices will be equipped with a chipset that will enable new experiences, applications and services. Though we still need to do a lot of work to complete the end-to-end ecosystem, we are getting close. Further, all major carriers have created separate units to address the M2M and emerging devices opportunity. iPad showed what’s possible - it fundamentally created a new leisure computing category. Also, iPad (and similar form factor devices) will find good usage in the enterprise as well. Pretty soon, it will be hard to imagine a computing device without the communication capability. Operators will have to release pricing plans to accommodate such an evolution.
Nurturing ecosystems - fight for the developer mindshare
It is good to be a developer in 2010. The success of many players goes through developersville. The love fest won’t last forever though, it will depend on how vibrant the various ecosystems become and how profitable individual developer shops are over the course of time. One thing Microsoft did very well with the windows empire was to create a web of partners and developers who were incented to use the tools and develop for the platform. In a more fragmented world of mobile, things are a bit complicated. Developers don’t have time or the energy to go after the newest, shiniest toy, what matters in the end is the “cost” to develop, “reach/distribution” of the platform, and “potential” of the reach. Players who don’t consciously make an effort to make developers thrive in their ecosystem will see their developer efforts collapse like house of cards. While the media attention is squarely on iOS and Android, we are not heading down the duopoly path as the dynamics of the mobile ecosystem are significantly different from that of the PC. RIM, Nokia, Samsung and others will do well, the fight is over the relative rankings in the pecking order.
Shifts in the revenue sand dunes
By the end of 2010, the global ondeck revenues will be overtaken by the offdeck revenues. As the smartphone penetration grows, it is less likely that the user will purchase VAS from the operator. While the carrier gets a healthy access revenue of $15-40 or more/month, the VAS business is shrinking for many. Some operators are trying to extract some value but are likely to follow T-Mobile’s path and give up on the smartphone appstore eventually. On the featurephones and probably low-tier smartphones, operator do have a role to play but perhaps some of it can be outsourced to other appstore providers so that they can focus on higher-margin services. We are going to see a readjusting of the appstores again in the next 12-24 months with the weaker ones whittling away from the landscape.
New experiences - display, interaction and commerce
The man-machine interaction took a significant leap with the introduction of the iPhone. Now the touch-interface is embedded in our evolutionary genes. There is significant work going into accomplishing more with less friction with the help of new interfaces and experiences that can like trying out a new outfit in front of a mirror - at home or in the store and with a flick of finger - choose the color, purchase it, and get it shipped. The amount of time it takes to “accomplish any given task” is going to reduce dramatically. With the help of contextual sensors, extreme personalization, and brainiac software, we will take automation to a new level. This will lead to new experiences that will enable more commerce, social interaction and participation, and general awareness and intelligence about every day things. Examples like Kinect, Augmented Reality, Projection displays are just the start of the decade when the display and interaction paradigms will be fundamentally redefined.
Reallocation of revenues - winners and losers are decided in reallocation
If we take a look at the spending habits of the US consumers on “access and communication services” which includes the spending on Telephone, Cable, Internet, and Cell phones, the total “access” spending over the course of last decade has been consistently around 4% of the total personal income per capita. However, the share of each of the services has been changing steadily. Telephone used to have 65% share of the spending but is going to be below 30% by end of 2010. Others have been climbing at the expense of telephone revenues, especially the cellphones which since 2007 command the highest share. So, the overall spending has stayed constant while there has been significant reallocation of spending. Similarly, within cell phone services, data has gone from being less than 1% of the overall revenues to over 35% in 2010 and is going to be more than 50% of the overall revenue mix by early 2013. Mobile operators will need to figure out how to manage these reallocation undercurrents and maintain the overall life time value of the customer. It will come from re-architecting of the business and technology practices as well through the introduction of new services.
Mobile takes off in Verticals
Mobile has become a full-fledged computing platform and other industries are taking notice. There is significant work going on in the mHealth, mRetail, mCommerce, mEducation, mEnergy, and others to keep things busy for the next few years. There are some really innovative startups focused on making use of the computing power that the device affords and turn them into full-fledged medical instruments. Add the communication bit and you can see the revolution happening in front of your eyes. The impact on saving lives and quality of health care will be tremendous - worldwide. The regulators and the legacy players will need to keep up. As we mentioned before, the NFC wave is coming and if all goes well, it will change the retail experience. Stay tuned.
(Mobile) World is flat
There is a significant readjusting of players going on right now with some of the Asian players flexing their muscles for dominant share of the market. Competition is driving more M&A, the gravity of the mobile data world is slowly shifting from Japan and Korea to the US with Verizon overtaking the long time leader NTT DoCoMo in terms of quarterly mobile data revenues. India’s Bharti became the number 5 operator after completing the acquisition of Zain. On the device front, Samsung and LG have been ferocious in their pursuit of marketshare and have been rewarded well by their performance esp. in the North American market. HTC has undergone metamorphosis and has become a serious competitor. Many non-traditional brands like Dell, Garmin, HP, Cisco are also flexing their muscles in the space that has become the computing battleground. On the infrastructure front, ZTE and Huawei are going to make life difficult for some of the players. We can expect the big “M&As” to continue as the industry consolidates around the top 3 players in different markets and sectors. The local skirmishes will spill into the global arena. North American operators have been curiously silent on the global front. Being the most lucrative mobile market probably has something to do with it but we can expect some of the bigger players to go shopping in the coming days.
Regulatory Excursions
The much-awaited national broadband plan was finally unveiled earlier this year. The current FCC has done a good job of engaging the industry and informing the citizens, better than its predecessors. It is also taking a deeper interest in setting up guidelines for the industry. The Comcast ruling was a setback but FCC is moving ahead with its plans. It will be interesting to see the execution details and how things pan out over the course of this decade. Similarly, regulatory agencies in other nations are acutely aware of the role broadband plays in nations economy and competitiveness and what they need to do keep their country on track. The mad scramble for more spectrum is underway. FTC is also keeping a close eye on the mobile industry for privacy related violations. If someone has any doubts of how much regulators are likely to get involved in this matter should read through the settlement between the FTC and Twitter.
Scenario Analysis - more changes in the next 10 years than in the previous 100
Despite all the commotion, the excitement, and the turbulence in the ecosystem, the trajectory of the winners and losers is not set. Like the Chaos theory, a lot depends on how the dynamic elements of the mobile universe effect and react to changes. Players will do well to have strategies in place per scenario so they can adapt quickly and keep the mother ship in the right direction. We can expect more changes in the next 10 years than in the previous 100. The triggers for various scenarios will vary - regulatory, competitive, technology, business model, consumer adoption, economic - each of these can have an impact on how a trend becomes the fact of life.
To discuss all these trends and more, we are putting together a unique Mobile Future Forward Executive Summit and are fortunate to have the company of some of the sharpest minds in the industry, folks who both have the vision to shape the evolution and the authority to invest billions of dollars this decade to make things happen. Hope to see you in Seattle on Sept 8th.
First 25 readers to use the discount code FUTBOL get $200 off the regular price.
Abhi Ingle, VP, AT&T; Amir Mashkoori, CEO, Kovio; Anand Chandrasekhar, SVP & GM, Intel; Bob Azzi, SVP - Network, Sprint Nextel; Chamath Palihapitiya, VP - Growth, Mobile, Intl, Facebook; Christopher Dean, Chief Strategy Officer, Skype; Danny Bowman,President, Sprint Nextel; David Weiden, General Partner, Khosla Ventures; Dr. Boris Nikolic, Sr. Program Officer, Global Health & Discovery, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Dr. Genevieve Bell, Intel Fellow & Director, User Experience, Intel; Dr. Greg Brandenberg,CEO, Columbia Basin Health Association; Dr. Sailesh Chutani, CEO, Mobisante; Dr. Suzanne Clough, Chief Medical Officer, WellDoc; Glenn Lurie, President, AT&T; Hank Skorny, SVP, Media Mobile Cloud Computing, Real Networks; Jack Kennedy, EVP, News Corp; Joe Sims, Lead Partner - Digital Convergence , Booz & Company; Jon Stross, VP & GM - Babycenter, Johnson & Johnson; Ken Denman, CEO, Openwave; Krishna Vedati, SVP & GM - Mobile, AT&T Interactive; Lirong Shi, President, ZTE; Louis Gump, VP Mobile, CNN; Mario Queiroz, VP - Product Management - Android, Google; Mark Selby, VP, Nokia; Matt Bross,CTO and Vice Chairman, Huawei; Michael Sievert, Chief Commercial Officer, Clearwire;Neville Ray, Chief Network Officer, T-Mobile ; Omar Javaid, CEO, BBDO; Paul Palmieri, Founder and CEO, Millennial Media; Rob Glaser, Chairman, Real Networks and Partner, Accel;Sean Cai, VP - Advanced Technology, ZTE; Stephen David, Former CIO, Proctor & Gamble;Subba Rao, CEO, TataDoCoMo; Takayuki Hoshuyama, CEO D2 Communications; Tony Lewis, VP, Verizon; Wim Sweldens, President, Alcatel-Lucent
Each panel discussion will involve luminaries/experts on specific topics, for e.g.
M2M/Internet of Things
Danny Bowman, President, Sprint
Amir Mashkoori, CEO, Kovio
Tony Lewis, VP, Verizon Wireless
Mark Selby, VP, Nokia
Evolution of Communication/ Engagement
Christopher Dean, Chief Strategy Officer, Skype
Chamath Palihapitiya, VP - Mobile, Facebook
Mario Queiroz, VP - Android, Google
David Weiden, General Partner, Khosla Ventures
The size of the panel will be small and the time duration long so we can delve deep into the issues and questions. For more details, please visit http://www.mobilefutureforward.com
Your feedback is always welcome.
Thanks.
Chetan Sharma
Disclaimer: Some of the companies mentioned in this paper are our clients.
Announcing Mobile Future Forward Executive Summit June 14, 2010
Posted by chetan in : 3G, 4G, AORTA, ARPU, BRIC, CTIA, Carnival of Mobilists, Carriers, Devices, Enterprise Mobility, European Wireless Market, Federal, Gaming, General, IP, IP Strategy, India, Indian Wireless Market, Infrastructure, Intellectual Property, International Trade, Japan Wireless Market, Location Based Services, M&A, MVNO, Mergers and Acquisitions, Messaging, Microsoft Mobile, Middleware, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Event, Mobile Future, Mobile Future Forward, Mobile Gaming, Mobile Search, Mobile TV, Mobile Traffic, Mobile Usability, Mobile Users, Mobile Wallet, Music Player, Networks, Partnership, Patent Strategies, Patent Strategy, Patents, Privacy, Speaking Engagements, Speech Recognition, Strategy, US Wireless Market, Usability, VoIP, Wi-Fi, WiMax, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , 1 comment so far
You have seen some hints of the project that we have been working on for sometime. We are proud to announce “Mobile Future Forward” Executive summit to be held in Seattle on Sept 8th, 2010.
Registration is Open Now. Early Bird expires June 30th 2010.
MFF is a gathering of some of the most brilliant minds in the mobile industry. The goal is to look at how mobile is likely to evolve over the course of this decade. We couldn’t have done this without the tremendous support of our excellent sponsors who are paving the way in their respective segments.
The speaker list includes the who’s who of the mobile industry:
Glenn Lurie, President, AT&T
Subba Rao, CEO, TataDoCoMo,
Mike Sievert, Chief Commercial Officer, Clearwire
Louis Gump, VP Mobile, CNN,
Paul Palmieri, Founder and CEO, Millennial Media
Dr. Sailesh Chutani, CEO, Mobisante
Abhi Ingle, VP, AT&T Wireless
Ken Denman, CEO, Openwave
Amir Mashkoori, CEO, Kovio
Stephen David, Former CIO, Proctor & Gamble
Dr. Genevieve Bell, Intel Fellow, User Experience, Intel
Hank Skorny, SVP, Real Networks
Jon Stross, VP & GM - Babycenter, Johnson & Johnson
Dr. Suzanne Sysko, Chief Medical Officer, WellDoc
Dr. Boris Nikolic, Sr. Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Krishna Vedati, SVP & GM - Mobile, AT&T Interactive
Christopher Dean, Chief Strategy Officer, Skype
Russ McGuire, VP, Sprint Nextel
Jack Kennedy, EVP, News Corp
David Weiden, General Partner, Khosla Ventures
Anand Chandrasekhar, SVP and GM, Intel
Chamath Palihapitiya, VP Growth/Mobile, Facebook
Rob Glaser, Chairman, Real Networks
Wim Sweldens, President – Wireless Division, Alcatel Lucent
Takayuki Hoshuyama, CEO, D2 Communications
Neville Ray, SVP, T-Mobile
Bob Azzi, SVP—Networks, Sprint Nextel
Mario Queiroz, VP—Android, Google
Matt Bross, Global CTO, Huawei
We will be covering the following topics in detail:
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Emerging Devices
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Internet of Things
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Network Evolution
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Content, Media, and Entertainment
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New sources of Revenue and Business Models
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Evolution of Communication and Interaction
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Mobile Cloud Computing
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Globalization and Competition
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Mobile Anthropology
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Mobile as a platform
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The economics and politics of consumer data and privacy
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Nurturing Developer Ecosystems
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Shifts in the Ecosystem
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Mobile Health and Implications
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Mobile Retail
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Japanese Mobile Industry
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Innovations at each level of the value chain
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Mobile Social and Commerce
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Managing network growth
You can read more about what you can expect at the executive summit in the following whitepaper.
I hope to see you there.
Chetan Sharma
Chief Curator
Mobile Future Forward
