11/08/2004

Cellular's data fixation

The newest trend in wireless services is data trafficking. Currently there are 35 million subscribers in the United States, a number which is expected to expand to 73 million dollars by the year 2007. Currently Sprint is the earliest leader in data services with 150% year over year growth and 24 billion dollars in total revenues per year. Perhaps one of the biggest developments in data services is television quality video available on some types of cell phones. This recent development is leading some analyst to make some radical prediction for the industry over the next four years.

A recent study predicts that adult wireless content will be a 1 billion dollar industry by the year 2008. This is due to a long history of adult content jump starting quickly into new technologies, as with video, internet, and pay per-view content. Of course the true amount of revenue derived from adult content is somewhat muddled, media giants like Comcast and Dish Network gain large profits from pay-per-view adult content but the profits from porn aren't separated from other business activities. That aside the recent innovations in wireless data trafficking make companies like Sprint an attractive investment avenue.

Wireless content is defiantly a booming sector by all accounts, but I'd hope that our society isn't so fixated with porn that it will be demanded on cell phones. Morally and culturally this study is frightening, because the adult industry is believed to be more profitable than MLB, NFL, and the NBA combined, it is likely that this study could be very close to actual outcomes in the year 2008. That aside wireless video technology is an exciting new innovation that has a promising outlook for large future profits.

This article was found at: http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/27/technology/techinvestor/hellweg/index.htm

2 comments:

Ernie said...

It seems that everyone has a cell phone these days. You're definately the minority if you do not have one. They are becoming a necessity in life when it comes to having the convenience of getting information to someone quickly.

Dr. Tufte said...

-1 on John_West's comment for spelling mistakes.

Just for curiousity's sake, Callie is more right than you guess. There actually is a case in the courts right now of someone who got into an accident while watching porn while driving (it was on a DVD player on the dashboard).

To be honest with you, I had never even thought about porn on a cellphone. I'm sure that will be a big thing in the years to come.

As to whether or not it is a good thing for society, this is another product that has very low marginal cost. That tells me that competition will drive its price to zero. That's why porn is so common on the internet, and will be on cellphones too.