Smartphones

In May 2011, I wrote my article ‘Will Mobile Messaging Revenues Decline?’, in which I discussed declining messaging revenues experienced by Vodafone Spain. As I reported, in the year to March 2011, there was a 13.8% decline in mobile messaging revenue compared with the previous year, from GBP400 million to GBP345 million. The publication by… Read more

Smartphones are starting to have a significant positive effect on mobile network operator revenues as a whole, with positive news from Vodafone today. Vodafone announced its results for the year ending 31 March 2011, with group revenue up 3.2% on the previous year to GBP45.9 billion. Vodafone claims to be leading its competitors in the… Read more

In his mobile blog, Mark Heath discusses T-Mobile’s recent reductions in smartphone data allowances. As a further sign that 3G operators need to constrain mobile traffic growth, T-Mobile UK  announced, in January 2011, a substantial reduction in mobile data allowances. The announcement caused an outcry from some smartphone customers. The move, which is clearly aimed… Read more

TeliaSonera has reported on the usage of its mobile customers. Average usage per month is as follows: 375MB for its smartphone users (which is similar to usage levels reported by AT&T (338MB) and Verizon Wireless (421MB) 5GB for its mobile broadband customers (which is less than the 7GB average reported by Clearwire for its WiMAX… Read more

Recent announcements by major handset manufacturers show that the appetite for smartphones continues to grow strongly. On Tuesday, Apple announced that it had sold 14.1 million iPhones in the third quarter of 2010, which was 91% higher than the same period in 2009. It took 18 months to sell this many iPhones when it was… Read more

Alastair Brydon of Unwired Insight discusses the implications of his analysis of mobile broadband penetration growth across Europe. As I review our model of the evolving mobile service mix, to help gauge mobile network investment requirements, it is striking that a relatively small number of factors are dominant in driving traffic growth. One of these… Read more

Indoor systems will support an increasing proportion of total service usage on mobile devices, with WiFi access points and femtocells deployed more widely. Indoor wireless systems will be a core part of the delivery platform for 3G operators and they will use both WiFi and femtocells to deliver services through fixed broadband connections. By the… Read more

Mobile data pricing for traffic-intensive services is becoming more affordable for consumers, with a proliferation of flat-rate tariffs for smartphones and flat-rate mobile broadband bundles, with generous monthly usage allocations (for example, 5GB or more). Flat-rate pricing for smartphones is becoming increasingly prevalent, to give mobile users the freedom to access a broadening range of… Read more

The greater sophistication of smartphones compared with basic mobile phones (for example, in terms of display, processing power and storage) is better suited to usage-intensive data services (such as video), thereby generating higher 3G traffic volumes. As shown in the figure below, the number of smartphones has been increasing significantly year-on-year, and this growth is… Read more