Despite the recession, the mobile industry is enjoying a promising transformationWhen the mobile-telecoms industry recently met in Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress, its biggest global shindig, head and body seemed oddly separated. Bosses bemoaned the downturn and demanded free radio spectrum to stimulate the industry. But on the show floor it was hard to keep track of all the new “smart” phones and services.This disconnect is likely to continue for some time. Despite hopes to the contrary, the industry is not immune to the recession. Makers of handsets, which consumers are replacing more slowly, will be hard hit: unit sales are expected to fall by at least 10% this year, having increased by 6% in 2008 to 1.2 billion. But at the same time the industry is going through a transformation that promises to fuel rapid growth in the years to come. To draw a parallel from computing, it is as if the personal computer (PC), its graphical user-interface, high-speed internet access and open-source software had all taken off at the same time.To read this report in full in The Economist, see:
www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13234981
Mobile telecoms in the recession
When the mobile-telecoms industry recently met in Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress, its biggest global shindig, head and body seemed oddly separated. Bosses bemoaned the downturn and demanded free radio spectrum to stimulate the industry. But on the show floor it was hard to keep track of all the new “smart” phones and services.