Despite turmoil in world financial markets over the last year the trillion dollar mobile industry continues to confound expectations with spectacular accelerating growth. A new report from Portio Research reveals that over half the world now uses a mobile phone and predicts that 80 per cent of the world's population will be doing so by the end of 2013 - a staggering 5.8 billion people. The report, 'Worldwide Mobile Market Forecasts 2009 - 2013' provides a comprehensive analysis of worldwide mobile markets, growth forecasts plus network operator and handset vendor market shares.

Among the top 20 growth markets ranking list (2007-2013) there are few surprises. China wins the top spot, just ahead of India. These two countries are expected to contribute over 1 billion additional subscribers during this time. Brazil comes in a distant third with 132 million additional subscribers over the same period. Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, are also expected to experience high growth estimated at CAGR 13.3 per cent, 10.7 per cent and 9.9 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile despite rising worldwide mobile voice and data revenues Mobile ARPU continues to decline and is predicted to fall from US$23.2 in 2005 to USD 15.8 by the end of 2013, largely because additional subscriber growth is likely to come from low per capita income markets.

'Worldwide Mobile Market Forecasts 2009 - 2013' provides a comprehensive breakdown of mobile handset market share, with news that Nokia is still king shipping over 437 million handsets during 2007, while Samsung has displaced Motorola from the number 2 spot. In the first two quarters of 2008 LG displaced Sony Ericsson from the number 4 spot.
www.portioresearch.com