It was a mighty big 3rd quarter for the U.S. wireless data services market.
Based on the latest report from Chetan Sharma Consulting, the domestic wireless data services market grew an impressive 7% quarter-over-quarter and a substantial 25% year-over-year during the third quarter of this year.
All told, those figures amount to a whopping $14 billion in revenue.
Sprint, in particular, saw its second consecutive positive net-add quarter, while T-Mobile bounced from a recent downswing to enjoy a net-positive quarter.
As a result of these findings, it isn’t difficult to concur with the report’s assessment that 2011 will prove a monumental year with “some big M&As on the cards.” The advent of 4G networks could very well provide the opportunity to “realign the industry.”
“In the connected device category,” the report notes, “tablets led almost singlehandedly by the iPad is taking away the lion share of the revenues.”
As to be expected given the runaway success of Apple’s tablet computer, “the whole category is catching up speed in the US with 12% growth Q/Q much higher than in the postpaid segment which has trickled down to 1% Q/Q growth by Q3 2010.”
“We expect that in less than 5 years, the connected devices category will generate more revenue for the operators than the entire prepaid segment in the US.”
