LONDON-The global mobile phone industry will grow almost 227 percent by 2000 and most growth in developing countries will be driven by domestic consumer demand, according to research conducted by Euromonitor, an international market data and analysis company.
The company estimates by 2000 there will be around 271.4 million mobile phone subscribers in the world. The study predicts 72 percent of mobile phone users will be domestic consumers, 23 percent small business users and 5 percent large business users.
Euromonitor said revenues are shifting from North America and Western Europe to emerging markets like Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa.
It said the reason for rapid market growth in these regions reflects economic growth and a lack of fixed telecommunications infrastructures.
Euromonitor said the value of the global mobile phone industry will be $142 billion by 2000, a growth rate of nearly 66 percent from 1995.
The company said it expects the service market to experience higher growth rates than equipment sales.
North America will continue to be the world’s largest regional market measured by number of subscribers, followed by Asia-Pacific and Western Europe, Euromonitor said.
The company predicts value added services like voice mail will grow approximately 325 percent between 1995 and 2000.
