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December 31, 2012

Mobile Data Services Will Help Shape the Future of Mobility in 2013

Yankee Group's research and analysis has released a report on the future of mobile devices and data services, entitled 2013 Mobility Predictions: Time To Place Your Bets, and called 2013 the "make-or-break year for mobility."

In the report, analysts have brought to light what will or won’t drive the mobile ecosystem.

It’s expected that in 2013, voice and messaging revenue will continue to decline. Standard voice calls, Short Message Services (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) have seen their revenue growth dramatically slow in the last few years and especially in 2012.

Analysts rather believe there will be a growth in customer demand for wireless data traffic’s applications and information services from content providers.

Yankee Group has predicted value-added service providers (VASP) who offer over-the-top (OTT) services such as VoIP, IP messaging and cloud will take the place of SMS and MMS providers; VASP will become the biggest revenue source in 2013.

Analysts also foresee a growth in demand to supply a number of potential customers with mobile apps in addition to content, applications and services.

It is forecasted that global data revenue will rise to $550 billion by 2016 and the total mobile services to escalate to $1.15 trillion.

Yankee Group says early on, providers of voice over IP (VoIP) services, like Skype’s instant message, audio conferencing and video calls, or providers of IP communication services such as T-Mobile USA for wireless voice, messaging and data services are poised for long-term success.

The Group also recognizes that mobility's true smart players are also mobile application development services providers that are dedicated to sending messages and texts; examples are Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp Messenger, which are cross-platform instant messaging applications for smartphones and tablets.

There will be no slowing of sales for smartphones, says Yankee Group, as they long for "real competition" next year with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 and even Blackberry’s Research In Motion smartphones able to stand up to Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS phones, which have remained at the top of the market in 2012.

The report also reveals another mobility true winner will favor cloud app providers such as Salesforce, together with other cloud-computing providers and developers that have hosting services for e-mail and collaboration needs.

The Groups’ analysts also expect 22 percent growth in machine-to-machine (M2M) communication offerings, with carriers like AT&T, Verizon and Vodafone’s M2M technology and applications being at the forefront while Aeris Communications, M2M DataSmart and Numerex falling behind.

Lastly, the firm expects 2013 will be the year mobile payments using near field communication (NFC) will take a step back as there are still too many risks, and security and assurance issues associated with this type of market for SMS/USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data)-based transactional payments of goods and services.

They also anticipate cloud-based mobile payment systems that can link to someone’s PayPal account will likely fall prey to a successful hack sometime within the year.

To learn more about this evolution of the mobile economy, as well as the latest research and trends for the mobile market, visit the Yankee Group’s website. Read more about how the iPhone, cloud and M2M are poised for a big year here.




Edited by Braden Becker


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