Smartphones to fuel mobile data demand

Smartphones are fuelling a growing demand for mobile data, ABI Research has said.

The technology market intelligence company has predicted that mobile internet revenues will grow as take-up of VoIP solutions and other web-based smartphone apps accelerates.

Stuart Carlaw, vice president and CRO (Chief Research Officer) at ABI Research, said: "The growing popularity of internet-capable handsets will drive the increasing adoption of mobile data among consumers".

Mobile internet service revenues are forecast to grow 9.4 per cent year-on-year between 2009 and 2015, driven by smartphones used in conjunction with the like of IP telephony solutions.

Mobile internet revenues in developed markets like Western Europe grew 17 per cent between the third-quarter of 2008 and the third-quarter of 2009. This trend is expected to continue in 2010.

Sales of smartphones were vigorous in 2009, despite a drop in handset shipments. Smartphones are predicted to drive the anticipated growth in mobile internet revenues in 2010.

VoIP phones are making the transition from the fixed-line to the mobile space, RCR Wireless News said recently.

Dan Meyer, editor at the wireless communications news and information source, said that VoIP is "the latest technology advancement creeping from the wired to the wireless world".