Wireless communications, including mobile entertainment, RFID, mobile banking and cellphone service, continues to be one of the hottest sectors in the InfoTech market. There were an estimated 5.3 billion global cellular communications subscriptions by mid- 2011, including more than 303 million in the U.S. alone. (Since some people, particularly in developing nations, have more than one subscription, the number of individual subscribers is somewhat less, an estimated 4.2 billion.  This means that global market penetration is more than 60%.)  The number of subscribers to ultrafast 3G or 4G service is already approximately 1 billion.

New cellphone handsets are selling at a rate of about 1.8 billion yearly—making the cellular phone the fastest-selling single item of consumer electronics by far. These handsets are purchased by new users (those who are getting cellular service for the first time ever) and by those who are upgrading to newer, more powerful phones. Most new cellphones carry numerous advanced features. More MP3-capable cellphones are sold each year than stand-alone MP3 music players. More digital camera-equipped cellphones are sold than stand-alone digital cameras. In addition, new cellphones are often Internet-capable, and increasingly able to take advantage of high speed access.

Cellular service companies have been investing heavily in an effort to improve coverage and service. A good example in the U.S. is the fact that the nation is covered by more than 250,000 cellular telephone towers.

Total U.S. wireless service company revenues were about $159.9 billion in 2010, according to CTIA-The Wireless Association (Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association), up from about $152.6 billion 2009. Approximately 96% of Americans had a cellphone subscription at year-end 2008 (up from only 79% at the end of 2006). They spend an average of about $50.00 monthly on their cellphone bills. (In 1998, the average monthly bill was $98.02, but intense competition forced prices to plummet.) Advanced services, such as text messaging, Internet access and access to entertainment including videos and games, make up a growing portion of that monthly bill. U.S. text messages via cellphones total in the trillions each year.

Cellphones continue to replace traditional landlines in U.S. homes. As of the beginning of 2011, 26.6% of households have cellphones only, up from only 17.5% two years earlier.

Meanwhile, mobile shopping is a prime growth area in the e-commerce sector. Also, America’s government has long term plans to free up federal and commercial wireless spectrum that is currently allocated to various uses, but remains under utilized. This could pave the way for future growth of the wireless industry.

Worldwide, cellphone use continues to experience extremely rapid growth, particularly in China, Africa and India. China is nearing 1 billion cellphone subscriptions. In emerging nations, cellphone service is bargain priced. Handsets are particularly low priced in some regions. For example, Nokia recently launched cellphones with a good level of features designed for the African market at $15.00—a non-subsidized price. In some nations, particularly in Scandinavia, market penetration exceeds 100% of the population as many people have more than one cellphone subscription. Globally, cellphone-based game playing and mobile entertainment such as music and video continue to make great strides. Cellphones are rapidly becoming banking and payment devices, particularly in Japan, Korea and parts of Europe; that trend will move to the U.S. over the mid-term. (In some cases, this is done by using a technology known as nearfield communications to enable cellphones as payment devices when near a cash register or vending machine—somewhat like some credit cards do today at gasoline stations.)  Mobile banking is one of the most popular services for cellphone owners in the emerging world, as wireless innovation is bringing banking services to remote areas for the first time ever.

The wireless world incorporates a great deal more than cellphones, ranging from satellite-based services and Wi-Fi hotspots to remote wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and vast wireless Wi-Fi networks on corporate and college campuses. Whether it is access through Bluetooth, the fast data transfer speeds of upstart ultrawideband (UWB), satellite, cellphone or Wi-Fi, consumers and business users alike are becoming more and more reliant on wireless-based services and devices in their daily tasks. There is no end in sight to the rapid acceleration of wireless.

There are certain things you can count on when considering the wireless market over the mid-term:

a)      The total wireless market and the number of uses for wireless connections will continue to grow rapidly, even though market penetration of individual cellphone subscribers is reaching extremely high levels on a global basis. Analysts at LM Ericsson forecast 50 billion wirelessly-connected devices by 2020. M2M, or machine-to-machine communications, will be a major growth factor.

b)      Cellphones will continue to morph into ever more complex, multi-purpose personal communication devices (including the growing use of the cellphone as a financial transaction device). Cellphone circuitry will become much more powerful, piggybacking off the revolution in ultra-fast, multi-processor power in handheld game machines. The amount of storage in cellphones for data, photos, video and entertainment will continue to increase dramatically.  Batteries for wireless devices will become much stronger, while chips will become more energy efficient.
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