Ovum : Mobile Phone Users in Asia Will Reach 4.2 Billion in 2016

A research company, Ovum, predicted that in 2016, mobile phone connection will reach 4.2 billion users. In the publication, stated that 72% of them will be dominated by users from China, India, and Indonesia. They totally contribute 3 billion mobile connection - they will take 38% from the total of the year. As comparison, according to Internet World Stats total citizen of China, India, and Indonesia is around 2.8 billion people in which 625 million of them are internet users.

The interesting thing is although it has important influence, the revenue from voice call is decreasing in significant number and in 2016 the revenue from internet data is not only as supplement (added value) for voice call, but substitute it. In 2016, data service is predicted to reach $145 billion, while the revenue from voice call in this period will only around $193 billion - decreasing almost $2 billion from what is predicted this year.

Ovum Senior Analyst, Emeka Obiodu, stated that although the growth development of mobile phone users is significant and the needs of data services, it will not stop the decreasing of the revenue. The data service is relatively cheap and flat will substitute the voice call that is the main source of the biggest revenue nowadays. It is predicted that the growth rate of the revenue can be gained from the mobile service during 2011-1016 will only reach 2.4%.

According to Obiodu, this finding is not surprising. In the country without pre-paid service like Japan and South Korea, the mobile phone penetration will reach 130% in 2016. In this mature market, the trigger of ownership growth like the population growth and multi SIM will not exist. Meanwhile, except Singapore, Hongkong and Australia, all the developed country in Asia Pacific will affect the less revenue compared to developing country in the same area.