Social networking on top
The explosive growth of mobile social network services in markets such as India, Japan and the Philippines meant it was critical to add that component to this year's list of the applications driving traffic growth. As expected, social networks were tipped as the catalyst for growth going forward, ahead of browsing services which last year topped the list.
These services, with 31% putting it on top, even narrowly pipped video services (30%) as the next anticipated traffic generating application (see chart 1). The issue for mobile operators is how to monetize mobile social network services while not cannibalizing key SMS revenues in the process, McCormick said.
Browsing took a huge hit, falling almost 20 percentage points (from 36% last year to just 17%) after a 6-percentage point decline the previous year. Those reckoning P2P would drive traffic also fell sharply, dropping to 6% from 15% in 2010. Video remained at about the same level as last year.
LBS again has proven to be a major disappointment as an application to boost traffic ?after a significant fall last year (from 16% to 12%), it plunged again to just 7%.
Looking at the devices fueling growth, the survey confirmed what the industry already knew ?the netbook market for mobile broadband access is in trouble. Only 7% of respondents agreed that netbooks would drive traffic (see chart 2).
Rather, handsets topped the list as the proliferation of cheaper smartphones continues to gather steam in Asia Pacific. Just about half of respondents thought mobile phones would be the main device driving traffic (up from 41% last year). Grouped together just 21% of those surveyed saw laptops/netbooks leading growth (down from 48% a year ago).