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  • Shipments of GPS-enabled GSM/WCDMA Handsets Grew 97 Percent in 2010

    According to a new research report by Berg Insight, global shipments of GPS-enabled GSM/WCDMA handsets increased almost 97 percent in 2010 to 295 million units. Growing at a CAGR of 28.8 percent, shipments are forecasted to reach 940 million units in 2015.

    The attach rates for wireless connectivity technologies in handsets including GPS, Bluetooth and WLAN are increasing steadily as the adoption of smartphones accelerates. These connectivity technologies are already a standard feature on high-end smartphones. Adoption of GPS and WLAN will also increase rapidly in the medium- and low-end smartphone segments.

    The attach rate for WLAN connectivity in handsets reached 20 percent in 2010. Berg Insight forecasts shipments of WLAN-enabled handsets to reach 900 million in 2015. “There are numerous compelling use cases for WLAN in mobile phones, ranging from offloading data traffic from increasingly congested mobile networks to media synchronisation and hybrid navigation services”, said André Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight.

    “Hybrid navigation technologies are necessary to enable reliable positioning indoors. New multi-mode GPS receivers that also support the Russian GLONASS satellite system are already available in handsets. When using the two systems in combination, more visible satellites will increase the chance to receive sufficiently strong signals to get a fix in urban canyons,” he said.

    He added that further performance increases will come from hybrid location technologies that fuse signal measurements from multiple satellite systems, cellular networks and WLAN, together with data from various forms of sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and altimeters.

    Starting in the second half of 2011, more handsets supporting the Near Field Communication (NFC) standard for short-range wireless point-to-point communication will also become available. When deployed in mobile phones, NFC can be used for countless applications such as information exchange, electronic ticketing and mobile payments. Shipments of NFC-enabled handsets are forecasted to increase from less than two million units in 2010 to 400 million units in 2015.

  • Berg Insight: Shipments of Smartphones Grew 74 Percent in 2010

    According to a new research report by Berg Insight, global shipments of smartphones increased 74 percent in 2010 to 295 million units. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.4 percent, shipments are forecasted to reach 1,200 million units in 2015.

    The global user base of smartphones increased at the same time by 38 percent year-on-year to an estimated 470 million active users in 2010. In the next five years, the global user base of smartphones is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.9 percent to reach 2.8 billion in 2015.

    According to the report’s authors, smartphones are receiving more attention from handset manufacturers, network operators and application developers. Most importantly, an increasing number of users are now discovering how smartphones can act as personal computing devices enabling access to the mobile web and applications, besides voice and text services. Although high-end devices tend to get most attention, the primary growth will come from medium- and low-end smartphones.

    “Chipset developers and handset vendors are working on technologies that will ensure a good user experience also for low cost smartphones”, said André Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. “The challenge is to develop a handset with enough memory, graphics performance and processing power to run the operating system with multiple applications while ensuring a responsive system with fluid user interface and still keep costs down”.

    He added that smartphones in general will also benefit from advancements in chipset design. In the next five years, further performance increases will come from dual- or quad-core application and graphics processors. These new processors will enable smartphones to rival the performance of dedicated gaming consoles and notebook computers.

    At the same time, new user interfaces will be developed that make better use of sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes as well as cameras to detect movement or gestures without the need to touch the display.

  • Mobile Navigation Users Increased 57% in H1-2010 to 44 million

    According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of mobile subscribers using a turn-by-turn navigation service or application on their handset grew 57 percent from H1-2009 to H1-2010 and reached 44 million worldwide.

    The subscriber base is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 33.1 percent to reach 195 million users worldwide in 2015.

    Broad availability of GPS handsets and attractive pricing are key factors for widespread adoption of mobile navigation services. In the US, where GPS handset penetration is above 70 percent, navigation services for mobile phones has already reached about 8 percent of the total mobile subscriber base. A large share of these users gets navigation as part of a service bundle together with a voice and data plan from their mobile operator.

    As a response to the launch of free navigation applications for smartphones by Nokia and Google, more and more operators worldwide are now introducing bundled navigation services to offset the cost for end users. Navigation service providers and mobile operators are also trying to monetise services by introducing various feature and content up-sells that allow users to customise navigation applications to suit their personal needs.

    “Mobile operators and service providers are now accelerating their efforts to create differentiated navigation experiences with unique local content to compete against free services”, said André Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight.

    He added that integration of navigation services with other applications to stimulate usage will become increasingly important for mobile operators that seek additional revenues from location-based advertising. Since relatively few subscribers need turn-by-turn guidance on a daily basis, complementary features such as social networking, restaurant and event guides improve stickiness.

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  • Mobile Location-based Service Revenues in Europe to Reach €420 Million by 2015

    According to a new report from Berg Insight, mobile location-based service revenues in Europe are forecasted to grow from € 220 million in 2009 at a CAGR of 12 percent to reach € 420 million in 2015.

    The research group estimates that one third of all mobile subscribers in Europe will use some kind of location-enhanced application on a regular basis by 2015.

    Local search, navigation services and social networking are believed to become the top applications in terms of number of users. The social networking category is forecasted to experience the highest growth in the coming years.

    According to André Malm, Senior Analyst at Berg Insight, location-based services are finally on the verge of mainstream acceptance. “Increasing sales of smartphones are driving end-user awareness of mobile Internet services and applications in general. On-device application stores enable access to mobile services for a broader audience at the same time as flat-rate data plans make pricing more transparent. More and more developers are now adding location support in their applications to enhance the user experience”, he said.

    He added that integration of GPS in handsets is an important driver. “The installed base of GPS handsets in Europe has recently surpassed 15 percent of total handsets and will increase to 50 percent three years from now.”

    The report shows that the revenue model for many mobile applications in the consumer segment is shifting from premium fees to ad-funding. This is especially the case for location-based services where now also navigation services are becoming free for end-users and developers monetise their offerings through ads and various bundles.

    “However, revenues may not grow at the same rate as usage because the mobile advertising ecosystem is still nascent. It will take some years before a successful model has been established that allows advertisers to reach out to a critical mass of active users. This is especially the case for emerging location-based advertising,” as the analysts claim.

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  • Berg Insight: 894 Million Mobile Banking Users by 2015

    According to a new research report by Berg Insight, the worldwide number of users of mobile banking and related services is forecasted to grow from 55 million users in 2009 (at a CAGR of 59.2 percent) to reach 894 million users in 2015.

    Th research group notes that over the past year many of the leading players in both the telecom industry and the financial sector have intensified their efforts to bring financial services to the world’s unbanked population. According to the report, Asia-Pacific is expected to become the most important regional market, accounting for more than half of the total user base.

    Mobile banking is also anticipated to play a key role in bringing financial services to people in the Middle East and Africa. In Europe and North America, the technology will mainly serve as an extension of existing online banks as mobile handsets become more widely used for internet access. By 2015, Berg Insight forecasts that mobile banking will attract 115 million users in Europe and 86 million users in North America.

    “Mobile handsets are in an excellent position to become the primary digital channel for providers of banking and related financial services on emerging markets,” said Marcus Persson, Telecom Analyst at Berg Insight.

    “People who sign up for their first mobile subscription today will likely open their first bank account in the coming years and thus join the modern financial system. Mobile operators can play a vital role in this development and will have the opportunity to take an active part in the creation of some of tomorrow’s most important financial institutions based in Asia and Africa,” he added.

    In addition to traditional retail banking, the report also identifies international money transfer as an important revenue source for mobile industry players. Analysts forecast that 3–15 percent of the international money transfers currently handled by various formal or informal agent networks will be carried out using a mobile handset by 2015, generating US$ 1.2–6.2 billion in service revenues.

  • Mobile Navigation Users Increased to 28 Million

    According to a new research report by Berg Insight, the number of mobile subscribers downloading navigation routes and turn-by-turn navigation instructions using their mobile handsets increased twofold from H1-2008 to H1-2009 and reached 28 million.

    Until 2015, the subscriber base is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33.7 percent to reach 160 million users worldwide.

    The growing adoption will primarily be driven by the broader availability of GPS-enabled handsets and bundling of navigation applications with mobile devices and service plans.

    The report says in countries such as the USA and Japan where mass market GPS handsets are already available, adoption of mobile navigation services have already surpassed 3 and 4 percent of the total mobile subscriber base respectively.

    More recently, increasing volumes of GPS handsets have also started to pave the way for adoption of mobile navigation services in Europe where Personal Navigation Devices have been the prevailing navigation solution for some years.

    In other regions of the world, better availability of low-cost GPS handsets and improving map coverage will enable rapid uptake of navigation services in the coming years.

    “Mobile operators and handset vendors are now starting to experience the business opportunity of a growing installed base of GPS handsets and customers trying navigation services”, said André Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight.

    He adds that since relatively few subscribers need turn-by-turn navigation services on a daily basis, the mobile industry should integrate navigation services with other location-based services to improve the total user experience and ensure that customers continue to subscribe.