Mobile VoIP subscriber rates are set to triple year-over-year in 2011 – from 9 million to 29 million – as growing smartphone penetration and new vendor service offerings fostered growth, according to new research from NPD-InStat.
While still considered a nascent market, telecompetitors are increasingly embracing and offering mVoIP services, according to NPD-Instat.
“While VoIP is a well-defined market, mobile VoIP is still in its infancy, with most offerings only being developed over the past several years, and because it’s in its nascent stage, there are significant opportunities for companies to develop the market,” says senior analyst Amy Cravens. “However, there are also a number of uncertainties, which is not surprising in a new market.”
Key findings in NPD-InStat’s “Mobile VoIP 2012: Mobile Operators Provide a Guarded Embrace,” include the following:
- The primary distribution channel utilized by respondents to access mobile VoIP offerings is through the OS application store.
- The largest concentration of mobile VoIP users is in Western Europe.
- Revenues associated with mobile VoIP usage will increase to over $4 billion in 2015.
- LTE operators are not likely to have a significant impact on the mobile VoIP market until 2013.
