Video phone sales to double by 2010
November 7, 2007
Sales of mobile video phones hit close to $58 billion (E40bn) worldwide in 2006 and are forecast to more than double to nearly $125 billion by 2010, says market research firm Infonetics Research in its latest report, Mobile Video Phones, Services, and Subscribers.
Explosive growth in mobile video subscribers is forecast as well, jumping from a few million in 2006 to 58.6 million in 2010, the report suggests. Drivers for this strong growth include increasingly powerful and efficient phones and the analogue broadcast signal switch-offs.
“Despite some concerns around the business plan and subscriber take rates, major service providers continue to move forward with their mobile video network rollouts. They're taking advantage of spectrum availability, thanks to the switch-off of analogue TV broadcasting networks, and the pressure to get services rolled out before next year’s Summer Olympics in Beijing and the European Soccer Championship,” said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband and IPTV at Infonetics.
“In addition, governments are very quickly lining up behind various mobile video technologies to help facilitate deployments, with the EU's endorsement of DVB-H and the Chinese government's sponsorship of CMMB being the 2 most visible efforts,” Heynen added.