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Telecommunications Mobile broadband customers tipped to exceed fixed
Telecommunications Mobile broadband customers tipped to exceed fixed | Mobile broadband customers tipped to exceed fixed |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Tuesday, 13 January 2009 | |
  
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Webber believes Australia will experience comparable growth to Western European countries where research company CSS Insight estimated around 26 million laptops where connected to mobile data networks by the end of the year with some countries witnessing an 18 percent month-on-month growth for the first six months of 2008. Broadband Expert predicts that mobile broadband sales will be boosted further by an increase in packages offering a laptop as part of the deal. It notes that such deals proved so popular in the UK that many retailers ran out of stock in the run up to Christmas. Similar deals are already being offered by Dodo in Australia with Vodafone set to follow suit in early 2009 by offering a Dell Netbook with built in mobile broadband. Broadband Expert says: "These deals are likely to prove attractive as the consumer can spread the cost of a new laptop over the length of their mobile broadband contract. In September 2008 a number leading vendors and telcos led by the GSM Association banded together to launch a major promotion of laptops with embedded HSPA mobile broadband , but analyst firm Ovum was unconvinced that laptops with embedded broadband would prove attractive alternatives to external modems. Ovum's Nathan Burley pointed out that: the replacement cycle of a laptop is longer than that of a mobile phone, slowing uptake; embedded laptops are also more expensive and less flexible than a USB modem; a modem can be pooled for enterprise use, but a laptop is per person. According to Ovum embedding HSPA in a laptop will presently add around $US70 the price - a very hefty premium on products in the $US500-$US1000 range which is the GSMA's stated primary target market. Ovum said the price of embedded modules should fall to $US40 in 2009 but could go lower as volumes ramp up. Almost 80 million laptops in this price range had been sold by the end of 2008 and GSMA claimed to have survey data showing that 88 percent of buyers would prefer mobile broadband built-in to notebooks to their original choice. According to Ericsson (a member of the GSMA's initiative) market projections indicate that in 2011, approximately 200 million notebooks will ship annually and Ericsson anticipates that 50 percent of these will have a built-in HSPA module. |
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