Confounded Mobile Industry Booms in Turmoil, Says Portico

Despite
turmoil in world financial markets over the last year the trillion USD
mobile industry continues to confound expectations with spectacular
accelerating growth. A new report from Portio Research reveals that
over half the world now uses a mobile phone and predicts that 80% of
the world's population will be doing so by the end of 2013 - a
staggering 5.8 billion people.

The report, 'Worldwide Mobile Market
Forecasts 2009 - 2013' provides a comprehensive analysis of worldwide
mobile markets, growth forecasts plus network operator and handset
vendor market shares.

Among the top 20
growth markets ranking list (2007-2013) there are few surprises. China
wins the top spot, just ahead of India. These two countries are
expected to contribute over 1 billion additional subscribers during
this time. Brazil comes in a distant third with 132 million additional
subscribers over the same period. Africa, the Middle East and Latin
America, are also expected to experience high growth estimated at CAGR
13.3 percent, 10.7 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively. Meanwhile
despite rising worldwide mobile voice and data revenues Mobile ARPU
continues to decline and is predicted to fall from USD 23.2 in 2005 to
USD 15.8 by the end of 2013, largely because additional subscriber
growth is likely to come from low per capita income markets.

'Worldwide
Mobile Market Forecasts 2009 - 2013' provides a comprehensive breakdown
of mobile handset market share, with news that Nokia is still king
shipping over 437 million handsets during 2007, while Samsung has
displaced Motorola from the number 2 spot. In the first two quarters of
2008 LG displaced Sony Ericsson from the number 4 spot.

A
substantial piece of research spanning over 350 pages 'Worldwide Mobile
Market Forecasts 2009 - 2013' provides an overview of the world's major
regions plus detailed analysis of 73 individual country markets. Each
country section includes a mobile market overview with discussions on
subscriber growth and penetration and takes a look at the competitive
landscape highlighting any recent developments. "In 2006 we predicted
that over half the world would be using a mobile phone by 2009 thought
by many to be wishful thinking at the time," said John White, Business
Development Manager at Portio Research. "Despite this the mobile
industry achieved this milestone early in 2008 and continues to be a
beacon of good news amid the daily gloom and doom of the last year.
This report suggests that this will continue", remarked White.

Worldwide Mobile Market Forecasts 2009 - 2013