A proliferation of suitable handsets and increased end
user interest will lead to 38% of mobile phone users in Western
Europe utilising
mobile Internet services by 2013 according to a new five year
forecast by Forrester Research.
In its
report, “European Mobile
Forecast: 2008 To 2013”, the research firm predicts that 125
million Europeans will access the Web regularly from their mobile
phone – triple the number that do so today. One of the key drivers
will be the proliferation of 3.5G-enabled devices, which will
overtake the number of GSM-only and GPRS phones by 2010. Forrester
expects that by 2013 no less than a quarter of consumers will own a
3.5G-enabled phone.
“The mobile internet is finally reaching the tipping point,”
asserted Forrester Research Analyst Pete Nuthall. “But deploying
high-speed mobile networks and rolling out advanced handsets are
not enough to spark demand - our data shows that less than half of
3G phone owners use the 3G capability on their phone. To drive
the mobile Internet, operators will need to push flat-rate data
plans, increase the number of relevant services and applications,
and introduce new devices that provide a better user
experience.”
Additionally, the Forrester report forecasts more than 60% of
mobile phone users in Austria, Italy, the UK and the Nordics
countries will have either a 3G or 3.5G handset by the end of 2010.
These countries will also be the quickest to adopt 3.5G, reaching
penetration rates of more than 25% by the end of 2013.