Asian Smartphone Market To Grow Over Next Five Years
An industry report released on Monday says that smartphones will make up over half of Asian mobile phone sales by 2015, with 477 million units likely to be sold.
Consultancy Frost and Sullivan said 54 percent of the Asia-Pacific mobile market will account for smartphones for the next five years.
The consultancy said that the increase of smartphone sales will be a huge revenue boost for telecom operators as it means a surge in demand for data services.
The firm said that data usage from smartphones would generate over $38 billion for the region’s telecom operators by 2015. Last year, the industry grabbed just over $1.3 billion in revenue.
"Smartphones are critical to every operator’s mobile broadband business case, as a smartphone user’s ARPU typically increased by 25 to 100 percent after adoption depending on the market," Marc Einstein, the consultancy’s industry manager, told AFP News.
"The Asia-Pacific market is particularly interesting for smartphones as there has been significant uptake in emerging markets like China, India and Indonesia, even among prepaid users," he said in the report.
Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry have been sparking consumer interest for the last few years.
Frost and Sullivan said that despite jump in consumer interest, telecom operators would still need to overcome a few hurdles.
"Eighty percent of Asian mobile users use prepaid cards, and in fact in many markets are as high as 97 percent, making smartphone subsidies impossible for most users," said Einstein.
"Furthermore, there is a lack of public Wi-Fi, particularly in emerging markets, which has been a smartphone savior in the US and other developed markets."
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