Mobile computing services boom in Europe

Revenue from European mobile computing business customers will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 4% over the next four years   according to a market survey by ABI Research.

The analyst’s report investigated the prospects for five different mobile computing services: voice communications, messaging, information access services, computing applications and computing/information access applications. ABI consider the prospects for European mobile computing are bullish, stating that Europe as a region has the highest adoption of mobile computing services at 121% penetration, rising to 135% by 2012.

The 4% CAGR of average revenue per user (ARPU) among mobile business users predicted by ABI becomes more impressive given the firm also expects ARPU from consumer mobile services to stay flat at a CAGR of 0.1%.

Commented practice director Dan Shey, “Not surprisingly, data services are providing the ARPU uplift driven by the uptake of smartphones, and adoption and usage of mobile e-mail and Internet services. However, the impact of these drivers as well as others is different for business customers in different occupational segments; the end result is a unique set of subscriber and ARPU growth rates, penetration and total revenue opportunity by occupation.”

“In the current economic environment, focusing resources on the right business user segments is absolutely essential. Understanding the opportunities specific to each business sub-segment will not only allow mobile suppliers to stay solvent in 2009 but will also position them for growth in better times,” Shey added.