In 2008, almost at par, SMS contribution to revenue was 10.3 percent, whilst mobile multimedia services amounted to 10.1 percent, said IDC, predicting that SMS contribution will plateau at 10 percent for the next few years, while mobile multimedia services will continue to ride on growth trajectory.
Early drivers of growth in mobile multimedia content have been ringtones and wallpaper downloads, particular with the younger demographics, said IDC "Today, the emergence of handsets featuring larger screens and even touch-screen interfaces has pushed the uptake of mobile multimedia services to a new level," said Alex Chau, senior research manager for IDC's Asia/Pacific Mobile & Wireless Technologies/Services Research. "This has spurred content and application developers to develop tens of thousands of applications to satisfy this new demand amongst mobile users."
"The proliferation of EDGE, 3G UMTS and 3G HSPA enabled handsets has helped spur the demand for mobile multimedia services over the years; however, the next stage of growth will require mobile operators to invest in and upgrade mobile networks in the region in order to handle the explosive mobile packet data traffic growth," Chau noted.
In the markets where operators have already upgraded to HSPA 7.2, 14.4 Mbps and HSPA+ 21 Mbps, the take up of USB-dongle HSPA cards has been overwhelming, driving operators to ration the registration of new subscribers, he added.
As competition amongst the mobile operators intensifies across the region, IDC believes price will no longer inhibit the uptake for new services.
In developed markets, the differentiation between operators will come down to price alone, said the analyst house.
In the past, early adopters could leverage network quality and new services as a selling point to attract users, but as competitor networks matured, these advantages quickly disappeared, said IDC.
Many operators will try to avoid the inevitable as long as possible by offering exclusive contents but with more competitors such as Apps Stores entering into the market, the market will become more competitive, which will lead to an eventual price war, benefiting mobile users in the region, the research firm noted.