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852 WIRELESSMARKETINGTable 2Top 20 Mobile and Internet Index Rankings,
WorldwideMOBILE/INTERNET
ECONOMY SCORE (per 100) RANKING
Hong Kong, China 65.88 1
Denmark 65.61 2
Sweden 65.42 3
Switzerland 65.10 4
United States 65.04 5
Norway 64.67 6
Korea, Rep. of 63.42 7
United Kingdom 63.00 8
Netherlands 62.25 9
Iceland 62.03 10
Canada 61.97 11
Finland 61.22 12
Singapore 60.58 13
Luxembourg 58.58 14
Belgium 57.80 15
Austria 57.7 16
Germany 55.53 17
Australia 55.40 18
Portugal 55.13 19
Japan 54.94 20Note:From the International Telecommunications Union
Mobile/Internet Index included in theInternet for a Mobile Generation
Report.The index measures how each economy is performing in terms
of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and captures
how poised the country is to take advantage of future ICT
advancements. The index covers 26 variables sorted into three groups:
infrastructure, usage, and market structure. These three components
combine for a score between a low of 0 and a high of 100. The table is
taken from the Statistical Annex to the Report, which provides
comprehensive data on network and service development for more
than 200 economies.©cInternational Telecommunications Union
(ITU), 2002. Reprinted with permission.Richter and Mar (2002, p. 128) reported a recent
IDC forecast that the estimated average growth of global
spending on information technology (IT) would be about
10 to 11% between 2002 and 2005. The forecast report
showed that the Asia Pacific region has the highest growthFigure 1: U.S. cities with the highest mobile phone penetra-
tion rates, December 2002. Source: Telephia/Harris Interac-
tive, February 2003.©c2003 eMarketer, Inc.Figure 2: Mobile phone penetration in selected countries
in Europe, fourth quarter 2001. Source: Forrester Research,
March 2002.©c2002 eMarketer, Inc.potential for IT spending (i.e., 11%) compared with other
regions. Moreover, according to the forecast, extraordi-
nary growth of about 30% is expected in countries such
as India, China, Turkey, Egypt, and the Philippines.
For example, the penetration of value-added services
of short message service (SMS) is popular and success-
ful in the Philippines. Although that country has about
10 millions subscribers, 100 millions SMS messages are
sent every day. In fact, making e-jokes through SMS
has become part of Filipino culture. The subscribers
enjoy circulating e-jokes among themselves. In addi-
tion, the second-generation handsets are widely avail-
able and supported by a competitive pricing strategy
(about 2c/ U.S. per SMS message) and a simple billing
system (Ritcher & Mar, 2002). SMS is simple to adopt
and adaptable for low-bandwidth services (i.e., always
online).
E-entertainment (i.e., e-music, e-video, interactive
TV, e-gambling, etc.) has been regarded as the main
driver behind wireless technologies. The demand for
e-entertainment service has led to new business oppor-
tunities for hardware manufacturers (e.g., mobile phone
and components suppliers), service operators, and soft-
ware and network suppliers.
Another emerging market is China, where mobile
phone service subscribers are expected to exceed fixed-
line subscribers by March 2003. Furthermore, China’s cur-
rent 5-year plan indicates that telecom service revenues
will increase at twice the rate of the gross domestic
product.
This implies the growing importance of wireless Inter-
net services, particularly in those countries with a low In-
ternet penetration rate. On the other hand, marketers can
make use of this opportunity to develop creative wireless