Yankee Group: Industry-First Forecast for Global Wireless/Mobile Market

Yankee Group has announced a new Global Wireless/Mobile Premium Forecast that "examines prospective data across business and consumer wireless segments for key categories such as users by technology, average revenue per user for mobile voice and data services, subscribers by data category and handset sales by technology. Key results from the forecast include:

• Worldwide wireless operator service revenue will surpass US$698 billion by 2009; data services will account for just more than 21%of the total.
• Total registered cellular lines will reach 2.8 billion in 2009, representing a unique user base of nearly 2.4 billion individuals.
• Text messaging revenue will top US$36 billion in 2009; ringtone revenue to carriers and content providers will reach almost US$28 billion.
  

Erica Fox at Yankee Group said, "As competition intensifies, players in the wireless market need ever more granular data to truly size and predict opportunity growth. The Global Wireless/Mobile Premium Forecast provides the insight and focus companies need to make the crucial decisions that will determine their success in targeted markets."

Wow. Ringtones will be a $28 billion business in 2009???? I think that's bigger than the current global market for all music. Seems overly optimistic to me. Then again I make my own tones...for free...