Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News asked wireless industry analysts and executives to provide their predictions for what they expect to see in 2012 across their areas of expertise.
Smartphone sales as percentage of total sales will break the 20% barrier in 2012, with Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile having especially important increases in smartphone adoption. Smartphone adoption in the region will be driven by increased vendor competition, fuelled by Chinese manufacturers that offer affordable Android phones and operators trying to increase their smartphone base to increase data revenue.
DTH/satellite subscriptions will grow strongly
DTH/satellite subscriptions will grow 16% compared to total pay-TV growth of 11%, driven by traditional DTH operator DirecTV’s prepaid offering and regulatory limits on IPTV that have pushed operators like Claro and Telefonica into offering DTH services to enable triple play. Competition will put downward pressure on prices, making the service, which has traditionally been the more expensive among the various pay-TV options, more affordable as has been shown by Dish in Mexico and Via Embratel in Brazil. Via Embratel reached more than 1 million users in only two years of operation, an impressive accomplishment. Consumers in underserved areas, such as rural areas, will be able to join the pay-TV subscriber base.
Opportunity knocks in the IT services market
In some markets, such as Mexico, the IT outsourced services market (including SaaS, IaaS and PaaS) will experience high growth rates as a result of fixed operators’ strategies to offer cloud-based solutions specifically for SMEs. Alestra’s offering of SAP ERP in the cloud is just one example of how fixed operators are willing to climb in the value chain.
Security will be top of mind for enterprises
Security is the top priority of enterprises, where information leakage and hacking, among other types of security attacks, occur every day. Because of this situation, IT providers and operators are interested in offering security devices, security protocols deployment and infrastructure to prevent and eliminate risks.
The Telefonica-MasterCard JV will target first-time credit card holders
This service will incorporate some of the elements that we have seen in developed markets, such as targeted marketing, mobile coupons and mobile banking. For Telefonica, this will also be a good opportunity to enhance its still-limited mobile remittance service, and in the future (beyond 2012) combine both services. Banks will also be more active in encouraging users to use mobile banking either through mobile apps or via partnerships with operators.
