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Digital Communications Market Report 2012
Key Note Publications Ltd, Jan 2012
The digital communications market is becoming increasingly vital to more and more people in the UK. The focus of the market is now predominantly portability and accessibility, and this is where any future growth in the industry will be attained. Traditional means such as landline phones are showing considerable long-term decline, while mobile Internet used on portable devices is becoming very popular in its infancy.
The market has quickly become a battle field between a handful of companies. Apple’s iPhone and iPad have become the market leaders in the premium category, while mobile phones and tablet computers running on the Google Android system have done very well in the mid-market, as have RIM’s BlackBerry phones and tablet computers. All of these devices have taken advantage of a good 3G network in the UK and many Wi-Fi hotspots across town and city centres.
Using an exclusive market research survey commissioned by Key Note, it is possible to see that all types of non-voice communication are on the increase, while landline calling is the only voice communication sector that has experienced a fall in consumer penetration in recent years.
However, despite these positives indications within the industry, there is some concern surrounding the market’s value. The telecommunications industry’s retail revenue fell by £0.3bn in 2010 when compared to the previous year’s figures. One of the reasons behind this is that many providers are choosing to cut into their profits in the telecommunications market, in a bid to convince consumers to invest in ‘bundles’, which usually include digital television services that come at a higher price. Effectively, the market is suffering in terms of value as suppliers sacrifice telecommunications revenues to get more revenue from other sources.
Moving onto communications via the Internet, a large majority of residents in the UK use social networking sites as a means of communication. Consequently, this sector has recorded the largest growth in recent years. However, the only revenue generated from this sector comes from Internet advertising, and very little revenue is seen in the digital communications industry overall.
The future of the digital communications market will undoubtedly rely on more portable devices that are able to perform a greater variety of tasks. Video calls between mobiles could easily become commonplace when the new 4G Internet network is auctioned off by the Office of Communications (Ofcom) in the coming years, possibly late 2012. However, for now, consumers seem to be happy to invest in their digital communication usage despite a recent period of financial uncertainty which could continue well into the future.
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