Tuesday, April 15, 2008 Asia Pacific growth area for mobile phones By Liberty A. Pinili Of Sun.Star Cebu
THE industry association on mobile phone operators considers the Asia Pacific region as the next growth area in the sector.
But Anoja Obeyesekere, chairperson of the GSM Association, the global association of mobile phone operators, said the industry will have to face various challenges that include the economic disparity among countries in the region.
Obeyesekere, during her speech at the opening of the 28th GSM Asia Pacific Conference at the Shangri-la’s Mactan Island Resort and Spa yesterday, said the industry will also face challenges related to regulations as well as turnovers amid price competition.
“GSM will continue to evolve. While there will be saturation in Europe, which has a penetration of 200 percent, (it would not be soon),” she said.
She said further growth can still be achieved even in areas with high penetration as some people own more than one mobile phone.
Not connected
On the other hand, “most of the potential for growth” in the industry will be in Asia Pacific where “many are still not connected,” she added.
“Asia Pacific will be the region for growth. It still has a long way to go,” she said in an interview.
She said more than two billion people in Asia Pacific still need to be connected.
According to the GSM Association (GSMA), there will be around 1.2 million new GSM (global system for mobile) connections worldwide every day. This year, alone, the GSMA expects one billion phones will be sold worldwide.
It placed the present total number of GSM connections worldwide at 2.6 billion. It said, in 2006, cellular connections accounted for 1.6 percent of the global economy with seven billion text messages being sent worldwide every day.
The association also noted that 64 percent of mobile subscribers are in emerging markets, which include the Philippines.
Large markets
India and China are the largest GSM markets, but market penetration in these countries is below 40 percent.
In an interview, Obeye-sekere said that one of the challenges in the industry lies in the economic disparity among countries in Asia Pacific. While there are developed countries in the region, there are also less developed ones.
GSMA provides a venue for operators in developed countries to share best practices with those in less developed nations.
Obeyesekere said GSMA envisions to extend connections to more people, particularly those in the lower part of the financial pyramid.
Affordable
She said GSMA has been working on a project that encourages mobile phone makers to develop affordable phones for emerging markets.
She said the mobile phone industry also has to “minimize churn amid price competition” by making services more relevant and affordable.
As the mobile phone industry continues to grow, Smart Communications wireless consumer division head Danilo Mojica II foresees huge potentials in mobile advertising.
Mojica presented the mobile advertising program of Smart, which—together with Pepsi—received last year an award from GSMA for being a pioneer in mobile advertising.
In an interview, Mojica described the growth of mobile advertising, as an industry, as a “slow climb” as 70 percent of Filipinos in the country still watch TV.
He said, though, that 74 percent of mobile subscribers surveyed by Smart expressed willingness to receive advertisements through their mobile phones.
