MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

The Mobile Data Association (MDA) announced this year that there were "more phones than people" in the UK, and this quickly led to cries of "Sending out a SOS " ( after the style of the band, The Police ) from some parts of the mobile trade ...
 "Who will we sell to next and what of the future" ? Nearly one year on the growth prospects are clearly stronger in usage, but moving into differentiation, segmentation, multimedia and enterprise/public sector applications growth prospects.
 
Convergence of technology has started, but what the customers want is just a better deal, and a great experience - more minutes/texts, ease of use, simplicity, and easy access to content. Based on growth to date, MDA forecast 100 million texts per day in 2006, in contrast to 17 million per day just 6 years ago, and approximately 87 million per day for 2005.
 
 MDA trends sees other data mega trends towards more Mobile Applications
 and growth in:
 
• music/games/infotainment as multimedia comes to mobile
• internet usage as access is improved and encouraged
• video and TV, although some mobile TV requires regulatory encouragement
• mobile email for all, reaching beyond the special preserve of the PDA/Blackberry enterprise space
• enterprise applications continue to multiply, and a shift towards more telemetry/ telematics and M2M ( machine to machine )
• public sector interest in Transport, Health and Education with wireless applications taken to a new level
 
 Personalisation moves towards fashion in mobile - the Pink Motorola V3 RAZR may not be everyones cup of tea, but expect more wearables from bluetooth accessories to eyewear, from sensors to solutions .
 
But for now lets help develop this market and grow with usage, based on what customers really want.

No one predicted SMS growth, but we have now just witnessed a trillion GSM SMS or TEXT around the world this year. We need to learn from the simplicity, viral aspects and interoperability of this growth curve ..
 
" sending out a SMS , sending out a SMS ..."
 
 MIKE SHORT
 MDA CHAIRMAN