Mobile data revenues reached $49 billion worldwide in Q1 2008, accounting for nearly one-fifth of all mobile services spending, according to Informa Telecoms & Media.
While mobile data made up an average of one-fifth of total mobile revenues worldwide in Q1, that percentage varied by region: Nearly one-quarter of Asia-Pacific's mobile revenues came from data, but less than one-tenth did in the Middle East and Africa.
Messaging-oriented services such as SMS and MMS still dominate the mobile data revenue picture compared with mobile entertainment. That lead comes despite the growing number of advanced music-enabled handsets shipping worldwide.
In June 2008, Portio Research analyzed revenue breakdowns for various mobile data services. The firm found that mobile music accounted for 6.7% of total mobile data revenues worldwide in 2006, well ahead of mobile video and mobile games but behind messaging-based mobile data.
Mobile entertainment will account for a larger share of mobile data revenues in 2012, mostly at the expense of SMS' share.
Portio also predicts that mobile data will account for more than one-quarter of mobile revenues worldwide by 2012, nearly double the 2004 percentage.
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