U.S. Mobile Data Services 3Q07–3Q08 Vendor Analysis

This IDC study presents a competitive analysis and summary of the data services and content types offered by the top 10 wireless carriers (based on subscriber/customer base) as well as an aggregated view of the rest of the market for 3Q07?3Q08. Standard industry operating metrics ? including subscriber/customer totals, net additions, average revenue per user (ARPU), churn, capital expenditures, service revenue, and minutes of use ? for the operations of U.S. carriers are used as a framework to support IDC's evaluations and assessments of the current state of the wireless data services market. This study is a companion to and summary of IDC's 3Q07?3Q08 United States Mobile Data Services QView.

A strategically oriented, in-depth comparison of 3Q07 data services (SMS, MMS, IM, consumer email, and TV/video services) and content types (ringtones, graphics/wallpapers, games, and simple consumer and business applications) currently offered by AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, Alltel, U.S. Cellular, TracFone, Virgin Mobile, Cellular One, and Leap Wireless is included. This study contains industry averages and totals by which the performance of service providers may be objectively compared. Note that this study does not forecast specific carrier market shares for 3Q08 but rather aggregates market totals.

"In 3Q07, messaging services and PC data cards continued to experience strong growth and generate most of the U.S. carriers' total wireless data services revenue,"says Julien Blin, research analyst in IDC's Wireless and Mobile Communications program."As the U.S. carriers' growth in net subscriber adds and voice ARPU continue to slow in the coming quarters, wireless data services, which currently equates to 16.7% of average revenue per user, is likely to become an important part of the carrier's growth and may well help the carriers to offset the anticipated decline."