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How to Profit from the Wireless Data Boom

Guest post by: Michael Farrell

Article Overview: Even though the economy is sluggish, there are sectors that boom by benefiting from breakthrough technology that generates consumer demand, suggests Mike Farrell with aspenIbiz. Read this short post as it describes that creation of transformational technologies on mobile platforms and the resulting growth of wireless data networks provides an example of a sector poised to boom and generate profits.

How to Profit from the Wireless Data Boom

Even thought the economy is sluggish, there are sectors that boom by benefiting from breakthrough technology that generate consumer demand.

The creation of transformational technologies on mobile platforms and the resulting growth of wireless data networks provides an example of a sector poised to boom.

The main enabler is technology, of course, but the main driver is demand.

Consumers are in love with the smart phone, an electronic equivalent of a Swiss army knife; and consumers are buying increasing volumes of them.

As you know, this is a trend long in the making. Moore's Law has enabled exponential improvements in semiconductor manufacturing, which in turn have made the mobile phone the most rapidly adopted technology in human history. Adoption rates have been faster than of past technologies, including the land phone, television and the Internet. Even the transistor radio and polio vaccine paled by comparison.

Consider the fact that less than three decades have passed since Motorola introduced the first commercially available mobile phone. Even a decade ago, there were only half a billion people on wireless networks. Today, however, nearly three-quarters of the globe pays for a mobile service. Unique wireless subscriptions blew through the 5 billion level in September 2010.

In the U.S., we have become quite used to having early access to all the latest and greatest technologies - yet the pervasive nature of the cell phone is truly astounding at the global level. Remote villages in developing nations that don't have even running water or modern sanitation have mobile phones. As a matter of fact, two-thirds of the mobile phones in use are in developing nations.

Naturally, the mobile phone innovators, and the investors that have funded them, have been rewarded with fantastic returns on their investments. Looking at past growth, it is possible that some investors think the trend is over, but they could not be farther from the truth. "Phase 2" of mobile growth has already begun, and this is a data, not voice, revolution.

The profit potential for these is enormous.

Although voice is nearing market saturation, the use of mobile devices as data platforms is still a long way from reaching that point. Billions of people with low-end phones will be upgrading to smartphones in the months and years ahead. Just this past fall, 77 million smartphones were purchased by customers. This is where the real boom is, and the smartphone segment is surging at multiples of the overall mobile phone market.

Even over the course of a global financial crisis and a sharp recession, hardly a dent has been made on the growth of this sector.

It is estimated that mobile users downloaded 300 million applications in 2009. That number is up to 5 billion for 2010. Mobile Twitter use is up over 300%. Each and every day, 100 million YouTube videos are downloaded to mobile devices.

Impressive numbers, yet we haven't even mentioned mobile social sites like Facebook, which are showing explosive growth as well. In fact, Facebook is now surpassing Google in total page views. A lot of that Facebook traffic is from smartphone apps.

These numbers will continue to grow in 2011 and beyond. A Cisco market report projects wireless data to double every year, reaching 40 exabytes by 2014. As more subscribers switch to iPhones, BlackBerries and Droids, wireless data use will climb. These users are data hungry: A typical BlackBerry smartphone user consumes more data traffic than 30 nonsmart mobile phone users.

Mobile phones aside, we must also consider the rise of tablets. Just as the Apple iPhone has served as a catalyst for smartphone adoption, the iPad is serving as one for tablets. This is a whole new consumer product class still in its early stages. Vendors showcased dozens of new tablet models at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. Many of the new tablets either possess, or will possess, 4G wireless data connectivity.

It is expected that tablet sales in 2011 are expected to triple 2010's volume and this creates problems for wireless carriers as they have to accommodate all the new wireless connections.

This creates an urgent need for investment in wireless infrastructure including companies that provide solutions for smart networks. A company with technology for optimizing mobile bandwidth is a great way to profit from the wireless data boom. This contender provides DPI (deep packet inspection) technology that gives mobile carriers the means to secure, monitor, enforce, prioritize, meter, and tier their data traffic.

As you probably know, the backbone networking protocol of the Internet is known as IP ... the Internet Protocol. It enables data to be sent across the Internet in discrete chunks or packets of data.

Each packet contains not only the data but also some header information that is used to route the packet, manage the packet, and secure the packet. A key feature of deep packet inspection technology is the ability to examine not only the header information but also look the content of the packets themselves. This enables wireless carriers to manage traffic more intelligently.

As an example, there is a wide disparity in bandwidth consumption between wireless data users yet the price structure remains relatively the same. During peak network usage, 10% of the subscribers consume 90% of the traffic and this congestion degrades the experience for all. The way it is now, everyone pays the same for bandwidth consumption. By using DPI, wireless carriers will be able to have, implement, monitor, and enforce a tiered pricing system. This will increase revenue opportunities and management capabilities for carriers so they can improve the experience for all users.

I trust this post has provided some background and evidence that powerful efforts are underway with breakthrough technology for the wireless data boom. These activities will soon provide alternative wealth creating opportunities and our economy will become significantly stronger.

I favor a quote from Steve Forbes. Forbes says that pursuing additional financial education and the resulting increase in our financial literacy (including the investment potential of breakthrough technology) will open our eyes to alternative wealth creating strategies and this will be the key to resolving our global financial crisis.

To gain the necessary financial education, it is best to obtain association with, access to, and membership in a wealth creation community. As a result, you will learn and have the knowledge to use alternative wealth creating strategies such as Bank on Yourself, debt reduction, and asset protection. You will be exposed to wealth acceleration investments in areas (discussed in this and previous blog posts) such as the wireless data boom, smart power grid, nanotech being applied to biotech, biotech and nanotech converging with the semiconductor industry, electric cars, new access to space, 3D virtual technology, atomically precise manufacturing, nuclear power generation, commercial space ventures, Carrier Ethernet technologies, nanotech lithography, robotics, nano-based next-generation battery technology, precious metals, water rights, oil, natural gas, potash mines, food commodities, and gold mines. You will have the knowledge to consider investments in assets that are inherently useful like oil rigs, hydropower, or methanol plants; things that are hard to build, difficult to replace, and costly to substitute; definitely not financial stocks, definitely not retail stocks, definitely not commercial property.

Another benefit of membership in a wealth creation community is exposure to entrepreneurial leadership and business opportunities. Many of these leaders suggest that if you don't focus on being a digital entrepreneur, being self-employed, or being a small business owner, it will be a very tough road in the months and years ahead; actually it will be an uphill battle. As a result, the innovative wealth creation communities provide education and training on B2B, and B2C, eCommerce enabling a new breed of professionals that are creating six figure second incomes.

It is wise to monitor breakthrough technology as there are truly exciting developments underway with the wireless data boom and related business activities. I will continue to monitor developments and provide updates in future articles and at my blog.

Finally, I want to thank Ray Blanco and Patrick Cox of Agora Financial as they were the source of some of the materials about the technology advancements mentioned in this post.

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Article Tags: B2B B2C eCommerce, Breakthrough Technology, Financial Education, Mike Farrell aspenIbiz, Second Income Opportunity, Smartphone, Wireless Networks



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Re: The Mobile Marketing - Mobile Marketing involves communicating with the consumer via cellular (or mobile) device, either to send a simple marketing message, to introduce them to a new audience participation-based campaign or to allow them to visit a mobile website. Some of the tools of the trade and a few of the concepts that will be featured in this Mobile Marketing 101 series are: Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) Bluetooth, Wireless and Infrared Mobile Internet and Social Media Mobile Applications Mobile connectivity not only enables people to connect to the Internet via a cellular telephone, PDA or other gadget, but also consolidates the different communication channels in a simple, yet effective, medium. Cheaper than traditional means for both the consumer and the marketer - and easy enough for almost any age group to understand and engage with - Mobile Marketing really is a streamlined version of traditional eMarketing.
Library to Meet - Has anyone ever tried the Public Library? they have meeting rooms there too and Toronto has over 30 locations with Free Wireless Internet.
Re: Boomers Are Not Bloggers - [quote="litekepr":2lgtat5y]Source: ThirdAge and JWT Boom, June 2008 Asked whether they visited any sites to connect and engage with others - i.e., social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) - or might in the future… "Do you visit Social Networking sites to connect and engage with others…" * 53% said no * 22% said yes * 26% said that they did not but might Source: ThirdAge and JWT Boom, June 2008 Among the 53% who said they had not visited such sites: * 47 % cited concerns over privacy and having personal information on the web * 39 % said they are too busy * 32% said they do not see the benefit of spending time social networking Boomers also expressed "little or no interest" in the following activities:[/quote:2lgtat5y] Hi Shri, I totally agree with the findings of the article. Most of the people I play tennis with are over the age of 30 and the vast majority of them do not use Facebook, so I can't even organize a "tennis group" or share my US Open pictures with them. In fact, I typically have to call each "boomer" via cell phone just to plan a tennis match because they're too busy to even reply to their emails.
I'll call Heather - That is way too much! How obnoxious! At least when Rogers Wireless does it, they actually send you a prize, like a years magazine subscription or something. I find it worth the 5 minutes - but not 8 million times and with now reward.
Which kind of industries are you interested in? - Ecological or E-business or Investment or Finance or Management or Non-Profit or Retailer or others.


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