Australians are converting to smartphones at a phenomenal rate. According to an article in ZDNet, the growth of accessing the internet via mobile phones is set to grow 7 times in the next year.
This is phenomenal, given that 3G penetration rate for Australia is reported at around 66% according to a recent presentation given by Morgan Stanley in the US.
Whatever the stats, it seems Australians are apparently no longer happy to just call and SMS from their mobiles. They want to surf the internet, email and interact on social media while away from their PCs. The emerging trend of unmetered websites, and mobile content and applications has IDC predicting that within the next 12 months there will be 1.6 million internet connections from mobile handsets in Australia, up from 200,000!
Smartcompany reports that Android is tipped to triple their marketshare in 2011 , while Nokia and Windows Mobile recently had a major PR blitz announcing their launch plans to defend their market position. The trend for the Telco industry is for explosive growth and increased competition.
This is good news for the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) trend. In one of my previous posts (Picking Telco / ISP Trends) I referenced Huntley’s Morningstar, where their analysts are predicting a steady ARPU for 2011. Customers need a reason to keep spending, and it appears that smartphones might be the key. According to research firm Frost & Sullivan, in more mobile developed countries such as Korea and Japan, the ARPU typically increased 25-100% after users switched to smartphones.
It will be interesting to see what this does to post-paid mobile internet trends, and whether there will be product cannibalization as consumers start using their smartphones as wireless modems.
2011 looks to be yet another interesting year in the Telco/ISP industry, as Telstra are reportedly in the midst of preparing for 3G release to the wholesale market at the end of the year.
If you’re in the local Telco industry, tell us what you’re seeing? Are these predictions proving to be correct?
