APAC mobile market to top $447b by 2020

Asia-Pacific mobile operators will be completing for a slice of a $447 billion revenue pie by 2020, the GSMA claims.

 

Research cited by the industry group, as well as operators including KT and AT&T, states that the exploding proliferation of connected devices will drive a spike in global mobile revenues to $1.2 trillion by 2020.

 

This would be a sevenfold increase from expected collective revenues in 2011. Asia-Pacific's share of these revenues will be close to double North America's, and more than four times that of the Middle East and Africa.

 

Over the same period, the number of devices connected to mobile networks will double to 12 billion, from 6 billion today.

 

The report states that the rise of what it calls the “connected life” will bring mobile operators opportunities in segments including consumer electronics, automotive, healthcare and utilities. Likely areas of the value chain include service provision and system integration.

 

But operators will need to remain nimble, and to work together on issues such as roaming agreements, to make the most of the M2M opportunities that are emerging.