US Mobile Download Revenues Jump in Last Quarter

As the wireless market matures and voice services become more of a commodity, the dynamics of competition among U.S. wireless carriers is evolving. IDC research found that total revenues from paid downloads by USA wireless subscribers approached US$250 million in the fourth quarter of 2004, on volume of almost 100 million units.

"Verizon edged out Cingular for the top spot in terms of total content downloads and application revenues in Q4 of 2004, which suggests that Verizon's BREW platform and its associated developer, aggregator, and content provider ecosystem is currently performing well relative to other carrier approaches to this category," said Lewis Ward, senior research analyst in IDC's Wireless and Mobile Communications program. "However, from an average spend per customer perspective during the quarter, Sprint PCS was out front and Nextel had a very strong showing in the business applications category."

IDC's comparison of data services and applications currently supported by the 5 major U.S. wireless carriers is divided into three broad categories: messaging, content and application downloads, and other services and content. From a download revenue standpoint, ring tones and games led the way, with graphics, consumer and business applications comprising the remainder.

In the study, IDC offers recommendations to U.S. wireless carriers as they continue to focus on key strategies that allow them to achieve and sustain growth involving data services and applications, including building a value-oriented data strategy, fine-tune marketing strategies for the youth and young adult markets, and looking for new customers by exploring emerging opportunities such as MVNO's and prepaid."

Posted to the site on 9th May 2005