Tablet
data plan momentum builds despite continued smartphone boom
Boston, MA - May
8, 2013
- Despite continued strong growth of smartphones and the prevalence of WiFi
only tablets, mobile broadband subscriptions on connected tablets will expand
rapidly in the next five years. Strategy Analytics forecasts global mobile broadband
subscriptions on tablets will grow 8x from 2012 to 2017—as more than 165
million new tablets activate mobile data services.
The Strategy Analytics Wireless
Operator Strategies (WOS) service report, “Tablets
at Mobile Operators: Forecasts of Tablet Subscriptions, Data Traffic, Service
Revenue 2010-2017,” projects that in 2017 global mobile tablet
subscriptions will contribute nearly US$20 billion to operator service revenues
and generate almost 3 and a half million Terabytes of mobile data traffic. With
the new iPad setting the technology benchmark, 4G LTE quickly becomes the
access technology of choice and will account for more than 80 percent of all
mobile broadband tablet subscriptions by the end of 2017.
The most important near-term driver
for tablet subscriptions is operator tariffs that aim to stimulate more tablet
connections. In particular, service plans allowing multiple devices to share a
pooled data allocation on a single data plan, such as those offered by
AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Turkcell and later this year the Vodafone Red plans, are
driving subscriptions directly on tablets, as are lower cost SIM-only prepaid
tariffs for tablets. Other approaches to drive connections include bundling
connectivity options out-of-the-box for tablets, such as the 4G Connect “comes-with-data”
model launched by T-Mobile USA and HP initially on notebooks or the just
announced Dell NetReady solution offering integrated 3G mobile connectivity
from Telefónica for notebooks
and tablets in a pan-European, pay-as-you-go model targeting enterprises.
“Mobile broadband tablets represent an
important incremental growth opportunity for wireless operators. While direct
mobile broadband subscriptions on tablets represent less than 10 percent of the
total tablet installed base in 2012, they were a key driver of positive
postpaid net additions at leading operators AT&T and Verizon Wireless in Q1
2013,” notes Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, Director, Wireless Operators &
Networks at Strategy Analytics.
Phil Kendall, Director, Wireless
Operator Strategies, adds, “US, China, Japan and UK will be leading markets
for tablet subscriptions, but we also anticipate strong growth in emerging
markets of Brazil and India where video content and network upgrades will drive
demand for wide-area connectivity on tablets.”
The companion report, “Global
Active Mobile Broadband Tablet Subscription, Service Revenue, Data Traffic
Forecast: 2010-2017” provides detailed forecasts for subscriptions, average
revenue per user (ARPU) and service revenues, average monthly mobile data
traffic and total network traffic from tablet subscriptions, covering 38
countries as well as regional and global views.
