I’m not-so-officially declaring 2004 the year of wireless data.
Anyone who has been in the industry for a while knows that “next year” has been the year of wireless data since about the mid-1990s. But there are a couple of reasons I think “next year” might have finally arrived in the U.S. market.
The first is that most nationwide carriers are consistently reporting the percentage of revenue they receive from data services. The number is miniscule compared with overall revenues, but it’s growing at a pretty decent clip. In the second quarter, Verizon Wireless reported about 4 percent of its total revenues were from data services, while Sprint PCS saw about $4 of its total average revenue per user come from data. The numbers aren’t huge, but carriers are reporting them, so growth expectations are formally set.
European carriers have been reporting data revenue percentages longer than U.S. carriers, mainly because their markets became saturated and they needed to highlight a financial metric other than subscriber additions. And due to the earlier popularity of text messaging in Europe, mobile carriers on the Continent generally have higher percentages of data revenue than their U.S. counterparts. But U.S. operators are steadily marching up the wireless data revenue incline.
The second reason for my declaration is based on the constant and steady flow of announcements I see for new content. This summer especially has seen a flurry of new games, ring tones and enterprise offerings. As of this week, you can get Three Stooges ring tones, Olympics updates and movie trivia on cell phones. And here’s the kicker-people are using it. Analysts estimate Sprint PCS has about 150,000 users of its TV broadcast service. Not a huge number, but not bad either, considering its popularity can only increase. And study after study has said people will not watch TV on cell phones. Well, a few are. And in Asia, streaming video is even more prevalent.
Thirdly, wireless has become an official marketing medium. Nearly all blockbuster movies released recently have had wireless marketing tie-ins of some kind. A growing number of TV shows are urging viewers to text in some sort of interactive voting or response.
All that’s left is to patiently wait for the money from all this wireless data to begin its flow. Yuk. Yuk. Yuk.
