Interesting article in The Toronto Star with statistics on the mobile industry , handset sales by type and commentary on emerging markets. As expected, rollout of high end mobile devices continues at a breakneck pace as does consumer desire for services to enable publishing of personal content. Some highlights follow:

• The mobile phone is the most common electronics device in the world and considered the fourth window of content after television, the big screen and the personal computer.
• There are more mobile users than landline customers in China. During the recent Chinese New Year season, 2.7 billion SMS-es were sent.
• There are 409 million mobile phone users in China as at end March, with about five million new subscribers every month in the first quarter. 
  
• “We’ve just started with (mobile) music. Music and imaging will still be a big focus for 2006,” says Mike Powells of Sony Ericsson.
• According to a survey based on 2,000 consumers conducted by YouGov, a Britain-based polling company, the majority of British consumers are finding mobile services increasingly confusing and issues around ease-of-use are still holding them back from buying and using 3G handsets and services.  

So no big surprises as we enter mid 2006. China and increasingly India continue to dominate the mobile industry while other Asian countries continue to adopt 3G at a faster pace than the US and Europe. However, the push for mobile content and services remains US and Eurocentric largely due to technology infrastructure. Partnerships between the two regions should increase especially as mobile content  - video and music - continues to drive revenues for the whole industry.

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