3G Adoption and Faster Handset Replacement in Asia-Pacific Are Inevitable

For mobile handset vendors, Asia-Pacific is the largest regional market in the world and holds the greatest potential according to Yankee Group. The region currently accounts for more than 40% of global handset sales and mobile users. Its importance will only increase as subscriber growth and device sales decelerate in the mature markets of Europe and North America.

In a region with striking income disparity, the challenge for network operators is to drive penetration within low-income segments while encouraging high-end migration to advanced data terminals-crucial to growing mobile data revenue and revive flagging ARPU. Vendors must serve the needs of operators and consumers with high volumes and a broad portfolio of products offering customization while defending existing margins.

Asia-Pacific Handset Sales by Technology, 2004 to 2009

Source: Yankee Group, 2005

Mobile operators, vendors and application developers all need an accurate view into future handset technologies for strategic planning. Unlike in Western Europe, where GSM is ubiquitous and all operators are expected to eventually migrate to WCDMA, the disparate standards in use or planned in Asia-from PDC and PHS to TD-SCDMA and CDMA800-make the region much more challenging to segment and predict.

From 249 million units in 2004, Yankee expects handset sales in Asia-Pacific to peak in 2006 at 265 million before slowly declining to 237 million in 2009. This trend is in line with subscriber growth patterns as the rate of market expansion begins to slow. Annual net additions in the region are already in decline: from 158 million in 2004, we expect only 100 million net new users in 2005.

Although mobile penetration remains below 25% across the region, most Asian markets will reach saturation at a much earlier stage compared to Japan or Western Europe due to relatively low incomes. This is particularly true of China, India and Indonesia, which collectively account for more than 70% of the region's inhabitants. However, average mobile penetration in these three markets is only 17% and will remain below 35% during the next 5 years.

Replacement handset sales will not offset the decline in new user purchases. Replacement rates vary significantly by market and are influenced by different factors. For example, Japanese consumers frequently upgrade their devices in line with trends and to gain advanced device functionalities and access to new data services. In developing and prepaid-dominant markets, replacement cycles are much longer because usage is voice- or SMS-centric, there is no data-driven impetus to upgrade and affordability remains a high barrier.

The region is currently in a major upgrade cycle driven by color screens and the introduction of cameras into mainstream phones. The next major cycle-driven by moving image capabilities-is already under way in Japan and South Korea. But for the rest of Asia, 3G services must first become commercially available and data usage and 3G handset costs must be reduced further.

Handset cost usually represents the greatest barrier to mobile adoption, even with 2G and 2.5G devices. New phone prices need to fall below US$50 to significantly affect penetration. Initiatives such as the GSM Association's (GSMA's) tender for new handsets priced at US$40 are designed to address this. Motorola has already responded with its C114 family of handsets targeting emerging markets, which will retail at around $40 initially and at $30 or less by 2006. The GSMA has already encouraged demand via a special procurement initiative from nine Asian operators.

Japan and South Korea are driving the migration to next-generation networks (WCDMA and CDMA1x EV-DO). WCDMA services are now available in Australia and Hong Kong, while operators in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Taiwan will launch commercial services in the first half of 2005. But in most of Asia, demand for advanced data services remains nascent. Low penetration levels also mean there is little operator need for the increased bandwidth and greater spectral efficiency of next-generation networks to support voice traffic.

GSM-only devices remained dominant in 2004, but GPRS/EDGE and CDMA 1x unit sales will overtake them this year. Supply will drive this migration because almost all new handsets have GPRS capabilities and vendors will discontinue GSM-only devices shortly. Assuming WCDMA retail prices will fall to current 2.5G-equivalent price points, the migration to WCDMA will also be steady and will account for almost half of total unit sales in 2009. Backward compatibility with GSM and GPRS will ensure that even in countries where WCDMA is not available, 3G handsets will be popular even if their data capabilities remain unused.

Between 2005 and 2009, 1.26 billion mobile phones will be sold in Asia-Pacific. China will account for the bulk of the region's sales with 557 million units, followed by Japan with 252 million units and India with 138 million units. Consumers will buy more WCDMA devices during the next 5 years than any other technology. Combined with GSM/GPRS/EDGE devices, total sales will reach almost 900 million units during the forecast period. The CDMA technology family (cdmaOne, CDMA2000 1xRTT, EV-DO) will account for 567 million, with the remainder composed of PDC, PHS, TDMA and a small number of analog devices.

Lack of visibility into TD-SCDMA handset and network deployments has led us to exclude this technology as a discrete category. Currently, we include it with WCDMA. This may change as a firmer road map from the Chinese government on TD-SCDMA deployment becomes available. We also combined GPRS and EDGE within a single category due to the limited networks and range of EDGE handsets currently available in Asia.

Yankee says that it has not explicitly modeled the gray (informal) market for handsets. Therefore, they may underestimate total unit sales. But gray imports or refurbished, second-hand devices have no bearing on official vendor sales and shipment figures. They believe they will represent a diminishing share of the total handset market in the future."

Posted to the site on 19th April 2005