The Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) has announced research results finding that “80 percent of polled prepaid industry executives see underbanked consumers as important or very important to the future growth of the prepaid industry, according to its latest survey of prepaid industry executives. Survey results are detailed in a new white paper, “The Industry Forecast for Prepaid Cards, 2009,” released today at the Prepaid Card Expo.”
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Sprint Nextel, after hemorrhaging subscribers throughout 2008, is predicting a 6 percent drop in wireless service revenue in 2009.
The carrier, which lost 1.3 million total customers in the fourth quarter of 2008, is also predicting that if subscriber losses continue at the same pace as last year, the company will see an additional 5 percent drop in wireless revenue. The forecasts were made in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission that Sprint made this past Friday.
Sprint lost 5.1 million subscribers in 2008, and wireless revenue fell by 3.1 billion, or 32 percent, as compared to 2007. When the carrier reported its fourth quarter earnings Feb. 19, revenue fell to $35.64 billion, down 11.2 percent from revenue of $40.15 billion in the year-ago quarter.
The carrier said in January that it was laying off 8,000 employees in an effort to cut costs and save $1.2 billion annually. Sprint has also tried other efforts to retain customers, including offering wireless plans with perks for loyal customers and a new series of flat-rate, unlimited plans for Nextel Direct Connect customers.
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Hong Kong cellco SmarTone announced a 68% fall in profit for the second half of 2008 yesterday as it forecast a further decline in business this year.
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Research and Markets ( http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/7430ec/1q09_china_mobile ) has announced the addition of IE Market Research Corp.’s new report “1Q09 China Mobile Operator Forecast, 2008 - 2013: China to Surpass 1 Billion Mobile Subscribers In 2013″ to their offering.
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Push to Talk (PTT), the mobile phone feature that enables users to connect virtually instantaneously with other users, is forecast to find its way into 8.5% of the North American market by year-end 2013, but in no other world region will it even begin to approach that market share.
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Research In Motion projected margins and earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter at the low end of its previously announced forecast despite predicting stronger subscriber growth.
The BlackBerry maker said it expected revenue for the quarter, which ends Feb. 28, to come in around the midpoint of the previously predicted range, with gross margin and earnings at the low end. In December, RIM projected revenue between $3.3 billion and $3.5 billion and margins of 40 to 41 percent.
RIM also said it expected BlackBerry subscribers to grow to 2.9 million, up from 2.6 million in its fiscal third quarter, on the strength of continued growth after the holiday shopping season. However, the lower margins and earnings could forebode a drop in sales of some of RIM’s newer, more high-end smartphones such as the Storm and the Bold and an increase in demand for older and less expensive models. The company said it expected “more normalized” growth in the fiscal first quarter.
“RIM achieved a very strong start to the holiday buying season and the momentum carried on stronger than expected during the past seven weeks, despite a seasonally slower time frame and the challenging economic environment,” said co-CEO Jim Balsillie.
Despite the growth in market share for the company, RIM has faced growing competition from Apple’s iPhone 3G, and may face more competition from a renewed Palm if its Pre smartphone proves to be a hit.
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A report from IDATE says that the world telecom services market is estimated at US$1,365 billion in 2008 - a 4.2% increase over the year before - and is expected to be worth over US$1,416 billion in 2009. With a total turnover estimated at US$742.2 billion in 2008, mobile services account for 54% of the telecom services market and single handedly deliver all of the sector’s growth.
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(The Paypers) The rapidly changing economic downturn is expected to have an immediate impact on the gross value of mobile money transfers, according to a report.
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A new study by Juniper Research indicates that the mobile money transfer market will be particularly vulnerable to the effects of the global recession. The rapidly changing economic downturn is forecast to have an immediate impact on the gross value of mobile money transfers, with the market in the worst case scenario reaching $73bn by 2011.
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Global mobile phone shipments fell 10% year over year, reaching 295 million units in the fourth quarter, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics.
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