Executive Summary
China Mobile, Vodafone, AT&T, Verizon and NTT DOCOMO retain global top5 positions: From the revenue perspective, the $50 billion revenue club is retained by China Mobile, Vodafone, AT&T Mobility, and Verizon Wireless and NTT DOCOMO.
China and India demonstrated strong growth in absolute subscriber additions: The Global Wireless Markets continued to grow rapidly especially in India and China where the carriers (combined) are adding almost 30M new subscriptions every month. China touched 757M wireless subscriptions while India crossed 525 M by the end of 2009. China Mobile Reported highest wireless revenues (16B US$) followed by Verizon and AT&T in Q1, 2010.
China Mobile announced highest Q1, 2010 wireless revenues: China Mobile Reported consolidated wireless revenues of over US$ 16 Billion in Q1, 2010. Total number of 3G subscribers is reported somewhere around 7.60 Million. China Mobile’s aggregate ARPU during Q1, 2010 was $ 10.32.
Verizon and AT&T surpassed DOCOMO to become top three operators in the world. Verizon and AT&T reported strong quarters and generated revenues in excess of 13.5 Billion USD. AT&T led the customer addition during Q1, 2010 with net addition of 1.9 Million consumers during this period. Verizon wireless acquired 1.5 Million wireless customers in Q1, 2010.
Softbank reported over 50% of their revenues from data services: NTT DOCOMO reported steady growth in customers and data revenues. Data as a percentage of ARPU crossed over 45% during first quarter for DOCOMO. Softbank reported very strong data usage with over 50% or wireless revenues generated from data services. KDDI reported similar trend with over 42% of their revenues were originated from data services. AT&T and Verizon topped data ARPU revenues in US and announced over 30% of their wireless revenues from data services.
Bharti Airtel of India acquired Kuwait-based Zain Group to become the 5th largest telecom group in the world (at the end of 2009, it was 9th). There are now 14 telecom groups with over 100M or more subscriptions. While China Mobile’s ARPU is 1/5th of its western counterparts, it operates its business at significantly higher revenues. Indian operator’s wireless revenues were 1/10th of their western counterparts.
Data ARPU continues to fuel growth for operators in Q1, 2010. NTT DOCOMO was followed by AT&T , Verizon Wireless, China Mobile, AT&T, KDDI, Sprint Nextel, Softbank Mobile, T-Mobile USA, O2 UK, and China Unicom to round up the top 10 operators by wireless data service revenues.
Globally operators are aiming to reverse the decline of Aggregate ARPU through continued increase in packet ARPU. Most of the operators in the developed nations (DOCOMO, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Softbank, KDDI, and Sprint etc) are contemplating future strategies to boost data revenues such that the decline in voice revenues is at least compensated for. There are very few operators who have experienced increase in overall ARPU in Q1, 2010.Data revenues for most of the Japanese operators are expected to supersede voice in early 2011.
Strong growth communicated by operators in India , China, US and Japan : While the countries like US, Japan, China, and India showed very little signs of pullback, most of Europe and the developing world experienced a decline in overall service revenues in 2009. Additionally, all the major markets have their data contribution percentages above 10% now. Major US and European operators are touching their 30% marks and Japanese operators are nearing 46% levels.
Operators from Japan and US reported highest aggregate wireless ARPU in Q1, 2010. Verizon Wireless, NTT DOCOMO, AT&T, Softbank and KDDI reported highest wireless data revenues among other global top 10. Most of the major operators around the world have double digit percentage contribution to their overall ARPU from data services. Operators like DoCoMo, and Softbank are over 46%. KDDI, 3 Australia, 3 Italy, 3 UK, Vodafone UK, O2 UK, Telstra, and 3 Sweden exceeded 35% and many others are on the verge of crossing the 30% mark
Lowest aggregate wireless ARPUs were observed by Indian and Chinese operators, however carriers are adding roughly 30 Million subscribers in India and China. China Mobile revealed highest number of net subscriber additions in Q1, 2010 at a monthly ARPU (US $10) roughly 1/5th of their western counterparts.
Smartphones with touchscreens, Wi-Fi connectivity, and advanced Operating Systems are growing in popularity[1]. In May 2010, smartphones generated 46% of traffic in the operator’s network, up from 22% two years ago. 24% of wireless traffic in the US came over WiFi networks.
The iPhone is by far the leading devices; however, 7 of the top 10 Smartphone’s run on Android: By March 2010, there were 34 Android devices from 12 manufacturers made available to consumers. The Motorola Droid was the leading Android handset by May 2010 capturing 6.8% market share of Smartphone segment.
Android continues significant momentum and surpassed Symbian OS in Smartphone segment: Android operating system surpassed Symbian OS in Q1, 2010 to become second most widely used mobile platform for Smartphones. Apple iOS is leading mobile Smartphone OS market share, however steady decrease in market share were observed in last two quarters. Android surpassed Symbain in December 2010 to take become second most widely used Smartphone OS.
The launch of new Android devices over the past year has led to rapid growth in the Android platform. Traffic from the Android platform has grown 29% month-over-month since May 2009.
In Q1, 2010 Smartphone’s generated highest amount of web Traffic: Out of all mobile handsets category, Smartphone were generating over 45% of traffic consistently in last two quarters making itself as most preferred devices for web and applications.
The iOS and Android platforms show a higher usage than share of handsets sold, primarily due to strong app usage. Users of the iOS and Android platforms regularly spend at least 79 minutes a day using apps. Consumers on the iOS and Android platforms download approximately 9 apps a month reported by AdMob.
Download Report : Mobile Data Wrapup Q1, 2010
[1] Admob Mobile Metrics; http://metrics.admob.com/
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