U.S. wireless data revenues to increase seven times by 2010

The Pelorus Group says wireless data revenues in the United States will increase dramatically through 2010.  A research report, "Mobile Browsing and Internet Connectivity: The Rise of Wireless Internet Services," issued by the company, says, "The outlook for wireless data content services, including mobile browsing and Internet connectivity, in the U.S. over the next five years is rock solid.

"At just over $7.2 billion in 2005, wireless data revenues are expected to surge seven-fold by 2010.  Revenues from mobile browsing and Internet connectivity will register a robust growth from just under $1.7 billion during 2005 to $23.6 billion by year-end 2010. 

"Most importantly, revenues from mobile browsing and Internet connectivity services via cell phones will jump 15-fold during the same period.  And by the end of 2010, revenues from wireless data content services will account for nearly 25.9 percent of total wireless revenues."

Note:  The report was published in August 2005, but I received an e-mail promotion from Pelorus and I thought the statistics were sufficiently interesting to post this entry -- the five-month lag notwithstanding!

Coming a long way

It's amusing to me to see how the attitude towards wireless Internet has changed.  In 1996 I left my wireless data newsletter publishing and conference business to become a full time wireless data consultant.

When I first saw a Web browser I said to myself (and others), "This is it.  This will change the wireless business."

So six years ago I registered the domain name of wirelessinternet.com, and every "expert" in the wireless industry (including wireless manufacturers and consultants) told me that the integration of wireless and the Internet didn't make sense.  Their opinions were that wireless networks couldn't handle Internet applications.

Certainly there are problems with wireless networks handling Internet applications.  But as we've seen, many applications -- both consumer and business -- work fine on wireless devices, especially as networks are getting faster.