What affect will an economic slowdown have on mobile data revenues?

Just published today was an article that the purchasing of cell phones for the first time in history has declined....overall business units, like those used in healthcare are up like Windows Mobile Units and Blackberries, but the average cell phone sales are down...and I tend to think this goes right back to the average consumer that is still just using their phone for phone calls...thus the value of mobile information is still very under valuated...but on the other side of the coin the folks who are using text messaging as a simple example are filing a class action suit to bring the cost down in a related article...and we all know text message play an important role with using telemedicine....BD

Mobile data revenues have had a good r ecent run. However, unlike voice and messaging, mobile data revenues are not yet a “utility” in the minds of consumers, or possibly even to the enterprise customer. As a result, as the economy weakens, the growth rate for mobile data revenues is likely to face a stiff test. It will be interesting to see whether mobile data products and services can meet the economic challenges they will face in ’08, and allow revenues to grow to the level predicted by Sharma Consulting.

The rest of the growth to reach $34 billion will have to come from additional revenue for access and services fees. On the positive side, consumers have shown a willingness to pay extra for some services, such as turn-by-turn directions. But economic conditions are sure to cause consumers to scrutinize those buys closely, perhaps exchanging subscriptions for a la carte purchases. And so the question remains: Are their other services beyond directions that consumers will pay extra for?