Despite a growing wireless audience, the U.S. is a revenue wasteland for mobile phone content providers. And consumers in Asia will have a longer average tenure on the mobile Web than North Americans or Europeans, which encourages greater usage time, more mobile transactions and familiarity with a wider range of services. Jupiter analysts predict that U.S. mobile content providers who do not license or syndicate to carriers will incur tens of millions more in expense than in revenue over the next two years. Many would-be wireless content providers should save their money and develop only a moderate mobile presence through 2003. Although Europe is more advanced than the U.S. in terms of wireless penetration and usage of text messaging, Europeans have generally rejected the first versions of WAP or wireless access protocol, which makes it possible to read e-mail, trade stocks or buy movie tickets via a mobile phone.
Wireless carriers continue to miss the boat in the United States.
According to a report by Cahners In-Stat Group , wireless providers are making a mistake by casting wide nets for their data and Internet services. With a population of more than 250 million in the United States today, however, the consumer market has barely been penetrated. In-Stat estimates there are more than 109 million wireless phone service subscribers and more than 60 million households with Internet access in the United States. Provided all of the necessary ingredients are in place, consumer wireless data subscribers as a percent of total U.S. wireless data subscribers will increase from 14 percent in 2000 to 37 percent by 2005. Wireless voice penetration in the top U.S. markets ranges from 36 to 48 percent, according to Telephia, Inc., meaning not only does an opportunity still exist for wireless voice providers, but the wireless data market also has plenty of room for growth.