Frost & Sullivan: Mobile Operators Depend on Mobile Data Services, Smart Pricing to Drive the North American Mobile Communication Markets

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- With penetration rates of more than 88 percent, the mobile market in North America can now officially be considered saturated. Mobile operators aspiring for better business outcomes are maximizing revenues from existing subscribers by offering innovative premium data services that run over next-generation wireless networks and devices. The emergence of a broad range of connected devices expects to push penetration of mobile services to more than 100 percent.

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New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.wireless.frost.com), 2010 North American Consumer Mobile Communications Outlook, finds that mobile subscribers in North America will exceed 355 million in 2014.

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"Today, subscribers rely on wireless services for their communication, entertainment, and information requirements on-the-go," says Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Vikrant Gandhi. "Text messaging has also evolved as an important medium for communication, primarily because it can be used in a wide range of scenarios and it is extremely cost-effective especially when used as part of a data plan."

Over 60 percent of North American mobile subscribers regularly use text messaging, and a majority of these are part of a bundled data plan. The impact of smart phones in driving data usage on the mobile networks is beyond doubt.

The biggest challenge is to ensure a satisfactory, pleasant, and useful consumer experience while delivering maximum value. Even though North American mobile operators protect the consumer experience, managing the end-user experience is not always possible since an increasing amount of traffic is increasingly causing several operational impediments.

"Mobile operators are forced to expand their content catalogs, but are not able to increase the data plan rates to justify this expansion," cautions Gandhi. "At a certain 'tipping point,' it may become unfeasible to continue doing this without exploring other sources of revenues, such as mobile advertising."

Long product development cycles further complicate bringing new devices to market at a rapid pace. The big question is how to increase average revenue per user (ARPU) without racing to add new services, devices, or network technologies. In order to compete successfully in this space, mobile operators need to look at multiple strategic factors, including service pricing, content lineup, quality of service, and customer care.

"Mobile operators could classify mobile content and match these to their customer demographics to determine the optimum mix for their decks," advises Gandhi. "Apple's iPhone, Android devices and the new generation of Blackberry devices are some examples of the possible impact compelling devices can have on subscriber uptake and service usage."

2010 North American Consumer Mobile Communications Outlook is part of the Mobile & Wireless Growth Partnership Services program, which also includes research in the following markets: U.S. Premium Mobile Downloadable Content and Applications Markets, U.S. Mobile Advertising and Mobile Search Markets, U.S. Mobile Financial Services Markets - Mobile Banking and Mobile Payments, U.S. Mobile Social Networking Markets, Advances and Trends in Mobile Video Services, U.S. Off-deck Mobile Content Markets, U.S. Mobile Messaging Markets, U.S. Mobile Video Services Markets, and U.S. Mobile Connection Aggregation Markets, and others. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that were evaluated after extensive interviews with market participants.

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan