Market researches - 2/11/06

A few set of market information released this week:

• According to In-Stat, smartphone phone sales increased by 50% in 1H06, after tripling over the two previous years.

• Strategy Analysis minimizes the impact of announced municipal fiber networks in cities such as Amsterdam, Paris and Vienna.

• Booz Allen Hamilton, on behalf of the UMTS Forum, recommends harmonizing European Union frequency spectrum policy to bring clear economic benefits to the Member States.

• According to Insight Research, the global telecommunications industry would generate service revenues worth $1,300bn by end-2007. Mobile service revenues are expected to grow at a CAGR of about 10% over the next few years, while fixed line revenues would grow at 2%.

• 14 mobile operators are working together to define a common global approach to enabling Near Field Communications (NFC) on mobile phones. NFC should allow mobile banking, mobile ticketing, mobile payment, etc..

• According to Merrill Lynch, Nokia dominates the Indian handset market with a 75%-80% market share, mainly due to early decision to rapidly roll-out retail distribution deals (most handsets are sold by independent retailers). They currently cover more than 90% of retail mobile phone outlets in India. Even with higher unit price ($40 in average for its lowest priced phone, vs $25 for low cost handsets from Motorola), Nokia outpaced Motorola that struggles to sell its “very-low cost” handsets developed under a GSMA initiative for emerging markets.

• According to Dell'Oro, the worldwide mobility infrastructure market was flat sequentially in the third quarter of 2006, due to disappointing WCDMA sales.

• According to In-Stat, the mass migration to IP-based services is finally happening in both the business and consumer markets. Total IP phone annual shipments will grow from 10m units in 2006 to 164m units in 2010. Cisco leads this market with 43% market share, well ahead of Avaya with 12%.

• According to Informa, mobile entertainment should be a big business for mobile operators, with assessment to be worth $23bn in 2007 and increasing to $38bn by 2011.

• According to Dell'Oro, the sales of WDM equipment has reached $900m, thanks to Europe' s 40% growth rate.