Asia-Pacific Braces for Mobile TV Fever

The Asia-Pacific mobile video services market is expected to see huge growth potential as mobile operators continue to spend millions on developing innovative services and content to arrest the declining average revenue per user (ARPU). Mobile TV, essentially an extension of mobile video services, in particular is seen as a new killer application that could potentially bring alternative source of revenues for carriers.
New analysis from global growth consulting company, Frost & Sullivan, Asia Pacific Tunes Up for Mobile TV, finds that the mobile video services market - covering 12 Asia-Pacific countries ex-Japan - earned revenues of over US$440 million in 2007 and estimates this to reach US$1.88 billion by end-2013, at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 27.4 percent (2007-2013).
While South Korea (which accounted for 87 percent or US$383.7 million of the revenues in 2007) will remain as the biggest market for mobile video in Asia-Pacific (outside of Japan), other potential leading markets include Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.
“Amid the growing interest in triple-play and mobile advertising, mobile TV has been the buzzword in the Asia-Pacific mobile and wireless market,” notes Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Shaker Amin. “The recent spate of trials and the commercial launches of broadcast networks in Japan and South Korea indicate that the mobile TV fever could well catch on throughout the Asia-Pacific region.”
Two of the regions most mature mobile markets, South Korea and Japan, have introduced mobile TV broadcast services (ahead of the other Asia-Pacific countries) built on homegrown standards. South Korea spearheaded the DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) standards, launching S-DMB (Satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) and T-DMB (Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) in 2005. While Japan launched ISDBT (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting - Terrestrial), or 1-seg, in 2006.
South Korea is expected to hit mass adoption in mobile video services between 2008 and 2010, when the rest of Asia-Pacific joins the commercial broadcast TV service bandwagon.
Other markets that have commercially launched DVB-H mobile TV broadcast services include Vietnam’s VMC (Vietnam Multimedia Corporation) in September 2006, and Philippines’ Smart Communications in February 2007.
In the rest of the Asia-Pacific markets, digital video broadcast-handheld (DVB-H) and MediaFLO remain most commonly selected for trials. In China, T-DMB (a different version from South Korea’s) and CMMB (China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting), both homegrown standards, are being deliberated for the country’s national mobile TV broadcast standard.
Pricing however remains the biggest hurdle to a wider uptake of mobile video and TV services. In 2007, the total mobile ARPU in Asia-Pacific stood at US$16.8 (including Japan), largely due to the region’s lower disposal income.
Furthermore, mobile TV broadcast service (multicast) requires compatible handsets, which are not widely available throughout Asia-Pacific as yet. In markets where an impending launch is expected, mobile handset manufacturers are still in the midst of finalizing handset requirements with the major mobile operators.
“In most markets, mobile video service becomes especially expensive when a user exceeds the stipulated amount of data in a ‘flat-rate’ plan,” says Amin. “Considering that this is a major restraint to greater uptake, mobile operators could follow the example of South Korean operators who have implemented an ‘eat-all-you-can’ flat-rate for data charges to encourage adoption.”

New Report Says 87 Million Mobile Users in Europe Will Be Using Their Mobile Devices for Mobile Ticketing Purposes by 2010

Revenues from mobile ticketing and mobile retail services will assist the global mobile commerce market by generating over $63bn worth of revenue by 2010, according to a new report from www.telecomsmarketresearch.com.
The report notes that by 2010, 32% of Japanese mobile users will be buying tickets using a mobile phone. It suggests that adoption rates in current mobile ticketing implementations is as high as 30% of the total tickets issued within the scheme.
By 2010, 87 million European mobile users (15% of the total) will be using their mobile devices for mobile ticketing purposes. The use of mobile barcodes is revolutionising the way we purchase and store tickets.
The bullish economies of India and China are fuelling the five-fold increase in annual m-retail transactions for the Rest of Asia Pacific forecast for 2008. The report predicts that there will be sufficient consumer demand, adequate payment schemes available and enough retailers supporting these schemes to see worldwide mobile payment revenues reach over US $10 billion by 2010.
The report reveals that innovative use of technology such as mobile barcodes and integrating RFID into a mobile device coupled with consumer demand for easy to use applications is driving up the adoption of mobile ticketing and mobile retail services.
Alan Goode, author of the report, noted: “The modern mobile phone and mobile network provides unparalleled levels of commercial potential. We are now beginning to enter the mCommerce era – and this era will see all of its expectations met.”