The prospects for wireless Internet use in Asia-Pacific during the next decade will be both a leap forward and a heartbreak.
The Strategis Group concluded in a recent study that the number of users will grow tenfold to 216.3 million by 2007.
The bad news is in spite of its population potential, the numbers falls below the predicted penetration rate for other regions. The study also shows Japan accounts for about half the usage.
Elizabeth Harr Bricksin, vice president and director of the Global Wireless Group, which conducted the study, said while Asia-Pacific will control 30 percent of the global market, Japan alone will take 15 percent.
Japan’s stalwart position is credited to the extraordinary success of DoCoMo’s iMode service. Growth in other markets is expected to be gradual.
The study covered 11 markets comprising Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.
“Developed countries in the region, such as Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, are best poised to develop the wireless Internet opportunity and lead the rest of Asia-Pacific into the next generation of cellular use,” said Oliver Tan, director of the Strategis Group Asia-Pacific.
Bricksin said most of the countries in the region are on track to implement 2.5G and 3G technology by 2007, although second-generation technology will hold for the next couple of years.
“The studies are still in their early stages,” she said.
Bricksin also said Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea are viable markets because the consumers in those countries tend to be technology savvy.
The markets use predominantly fixed-line Internet, except for in Japan, where penetration is low.
But Tan believes the “majority of the Asia-Pacific inhabitants will first experience the Internet through wireless rather than traditional wired means.”
The study identifies competition and 3G technologies as the engines of wireless Internet growth in the context of killer applications, content, aggressive pricing and convenience, with Japan leading the way. Other countries may remain behind Japan because many consumers are in lower-income brackets.
