INSIDE MOBILE: Why the Demand for Wireless Data Is Growing
By J. Gerry Purdy |
Posted 2011-03-04
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Smartphones and tablet sales are growing like mad. Each of these mobile devices is using more rich media. Here, Knowledge Center mobile and wireless analyst J. Gerry Purdy explains why this combination is resulting in an explosion of demand for wireless data communications.
Recently, I spoke at a RCR Wireless
seminar in Atlanta on trends in wireless broadband-using cellular data
communications to provide uploading and downloading of rich media such
as photos, music and movies with your mobile devices.
The wireless operators are facing a tsunami in the
growing demand for wireless data. It's like they are standing on
the beach, holding an iPhone and iPad, and looking up to see a wall of
white water moving toward shore and thinking, "I wonder what's causing
that?"
The operators have a number of very smart people who
study network demand. They all know the tsunami is about to
hit-and hit very hard. As a result, many of them are looking for
creative ways to offload the demand until they can build more advanced
4G networks that can hopefully keep up with users' appetite to send and
receive videos, photos, animations and music.
The cause for the tsunami in wireless data demands is quite easy to understand. According to a forecast from Frost & Sullivan
on the growth of share of smartphones (as a percentage of all phones
shipped in North America from 2009 through 2015), the smartphone share
of mobile handset subscribers is expected to rise from 23.9 percent in
2009 to 67.1 percent in 2015. Thus, there is going to be a
complete reversal in the percentages, with the more basic feature
phones plummeting, from 66.3 percent down to 22.9 percent of all mobile
handset subscribers.
J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.D., is Principal Analyst of Mobile & Wireless at MobileTrax LLC.
Dr. Purdy has been covering mobile, wireless, cloud & enterprise for the past 20+ years. He writes analysis and recommendations each week in an easy-to-read manner that helps people better understand important technology issues and assist them in making better technology purchasing decisions.
Disclosure Statement: From time to time, I may have a direct or indirect equity position in a company that is mentioned in a column. If that situation happens, then I'll disclose it at that time.
