DL - 4G Americas

various mobile data services have opened up new channels of communication and always-on
connectivity. Now, as more individuals are turning to their phones for voice and data services for
communication, education, recreation and leisure, consumer demand for high-end mobile handsets is
skyrocketing due to innovations in technology and phones’ abilities to serve multiple purposes.
Mobile messaging continues to be a major traffic driver and its growth continues to progress at a healthy
pace. SMS continues to escalate with a total of 1.8 trillion SMS messages – 4.9 billion per text messages
sent per day – reported in the 12 months ending June 2010. 66 This number is up by 33 percent from the
year before, when 740 billion text messages were reported for 2009. Wireless subscribers are also
sending more pictures and other Multimedia Messages (MMS) with their mobile devices – 56.3 billion
MMS messages were reported with an increase of 187 percent. Data traffic continues to increase across
all networks. U.S. wireless carriers reported handling 161.5 billion megabytes of data in the six months
ending in June 2010, up 49.8 percent from the last half of 2009, according to CTIA. 67
In its report on mobile application and browser usage among smartphone subscribers, comScore
reported that the number of smartphone users accessing mobile content through browsers and
applications now surpasses that of non-smartphone users. Averages taken from a three month period
ending August 2010 showed that smartphone subscribers made up 60 percent of those who used a
downloaded application and 55 percent of those who used a browser. 68
“That smartphone owners now represent the majority of the U.S. mobile audience accessing downloaded
applications and browsers represents a watershed moment in the industry,” said Mark Donovan, Senior
Vice President of Mobile at comScore, further noting that smartphones are, “generating the lion’s share of
mobile content consumption. With smartphones’ share of the pie destined to get greater over time,
marketers and content providers should begin to shift their focus towards developing with primarily these
devices in mind.” 69
As of May 2010, more than 240,000 applications were available from seven stores on seven different
platforms. 70 CTIA has estimated that in 2010, consumers are expected to spend $6.2 billion in mobile app
stores worldwide to download more than 8 billion apps – 8 out of 10 of which will be free. 71
The most popular applications are those that provide some form of entertainment (e.g., games, music,
food, travel and sports) as well as applications that help people find information and accomplish tasks
(e.g., maps and navigation, weather, news, banking). 72
In a survey conducted by wireless analyst firm mobileSQUARE, when operators were asked to choose
what they thought would be the top five most popular forms of communication in 2015, 94 percent of the
31 global operators responded that social networking will be the most popular form. 73 This was followed
by 87 percent and 81 percent of operators that believe messaging and voice, respectively, will continue to
play an important role in communications predicting they will remain in the top three most heavily used
communications in 2015. The study revealed that these forms of communication will be complemented
rather than replaced by rising mobile Internet usage, particularly from mobile social networking. The
66
Semi-Annual Survey on Wireless Trends, CTIA, 6 October 2010.
67
Ibid.
68
Smartphone Subscribers Now Comprise Majority of Mobile Browser and Application Users in U.S, comScore, Inc., 1 October
2010.
69
Ibid.
70
50 Wireless Quick Facts, CTIA, October 2010.
71
Ibid.
72
The Rise of Apps Culture, Pew Research Center, The Nielsen Company, 15 September 2010.
73
Majority of Mobile Operators Believe That Social Networking Will Dominate by 2015, Cellular-News, 15 November 2010.
www.4gamericas.org February 2011 Page 37