Gothenburg, Sweden – December 16, 2010: According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the total value of the global mobile marketing and advertising market will grow from € 1.7 billion in 2009 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41 percent to € 13.5 billion in 2015. This will then correspond to 15.7 percent of the total digital advertising market or 3.4 percent of the total global ad spend for all media.

The mobile channel is becoming an integral part of the marketing media mix, a progress which is eased by the increasing habitual mobile media consumption exercised by consumers. “Handsets are extremely personal devices which people tend to always have within reach and most often switched on. This enables marketing opportunities which other channels lack”, said Rickard Andersson, Telecom Analyst, Berg Insight. Mobile marketing is adopted by an increasing amount of companies of all sizes and the budgets now devoted to the mobile channel are substantial. “Brands do however have to establish mobile strategies in order to spend wisely and capitalise on the potential the channel brings”, said Mr. Andersson. He adds that mobile components can be beneficially integrated in campaigns spanning also traditional media.

Berg Insight anticipates that the convergence between traditional web and mobile advertising will continue as the technological capabilities of PCs and handsets merge. Advertising actors which are competent to master both channels are well positioned to be successful in the combined digital advertising industry spanning all types of devices. Corporations such as Google and Microsoft openly aspire for market leadership in competition with among others Nokia, Yahoo! and Ericsson. Apple is a newcomer on the advertising scene and advantageously equipped to monetise the vast amount of free apps in the App Store through its iAd platform for in-app advertising.

About Berg Insight
Berg Insight offers premier business intelligence to the telecom industry. We produce concise reports providing key facts and strategic insights about pivotal developments in our focus areas. Our vision is to be the most valuable source of intelligence for our customers.

For additional information, please contact:
Johan Fagerberg, CEO
E-mail: johan.fagerberg@berginsight.com
Phone: +46 31 711 30 91

Gothenburg, Sweden: According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, 4.3 million passenger cars in Europe will have an on-board telematics device at the end of 2010. Stolen vehicle tracking is still the main application, followed by automatic emergency call, driver assistance and motor insurance telematics. Berg Insight has a positive outlook for the European car telematics market in the coming five years, as the crisis for the global automotive industry is left behind. Demand for aftermarket vehicle tracking solutions is now coming back to pre-crisis levels. The OEM market segment is showing signs of increasing activity and several programs that were shelved in late 2008 have now been resurrected when the car manufacturers put new focus on their telematics strategies.

“The penetration rate is still below 2 percent of the total car parc, so there is a huge untapped potential”, said Johan Fagerberg, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. Across the world, new regulations and extended availability of services drive the demand for high volume, low cost telematics solutions. In Europe the eCall project has made progress and the vision of cars that automatically dial 112 after a crash is getting closer to becoming a reality. “Some vital technical standards are now in place and the EC has presented a realistic deadline for full-scale implementation by 2014”, continues Mr. Fagerberg. The largest remaining obstacle is now resistance from France and the UK, which are the only major EU member states that have not expressed their support for the initiative. Berg Insight projects that the safety system will generate 15 million new telematics-enabled cars per year once implemented pushing the total number of active subscribers to 28.7 million in 2015.

About Berg Insight
Berg Insight offers premier business intelligence to the telecom industry. We produce concise reports providing key facts and strategic insights about pivotal developments in our focus areas. Our vision is to be the most valuable source of intelligence for our customers.

For additional information, please contact:
Johan Fagerberg, CEO
E-mail: johan.fagerberg@berginsight.com
Phone: +46 31 711 30 91

Gothenburg, Sweden: According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, global shipments of Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs) will peak at about 42 million units in 2011 and gradually decline thereafter. Growing shipments in markets such as Brazil, China, India and Russia are not likely to compensate for the decline in Europe and North America. In mature markets where the installed base of PNDs is already high, the device category is facing increasing competition from smartphones and low-cost in-dash navigation systems. However, aftermarket navigation systems will be the largest segment for several years to come and many customers, especially in Europe and North America, are likely to use more than one navigation capable device for different occasions in the future.

PND vendors are increasingly looking at new features and value-added services to resist slower growth and increasing competition. Vendors are for instance adding larger screens and cellular connectivity to new models to persuade customers to upgrade their existing PNDs. Berg Insight forecasts that more than 80 percent of PNDs shipped worldwide in 2015 will have integrated cellular connectivity. “Sales of replacement devices to existing customers now account for about one third of shipments in mature markets”, said André Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. He adds that customers looking for a new PND typically want a larger screen and new services such as traffic information or speed camera warnings. “Vendors need to communicate the advantages of connected services, such as better traffic information, in order to educate potential customers and stimulate demand”, commented Mr Malm.

About Berg Insight
Berg Insight offers premier business intelligence to the telecom industry. We produce concise reports providing key facts and strategic insights about pivotal developments in our focus areas. Our vision is to be the most valuable source of intelligence for our customers.

For additional information, please contact:
Johan Fagerberg, CEO
E-mail: johan.fagerberg@berginsight.com
Phone: +46 31 711 30 91

Gothenburg, Sweden – October 14, 2010: According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of mobile subscribers using a turn-by-turn navigation service or application on their handset grew 57 percent from H1-2009 to H1-2010 and reached 44 million worldwide. The subscriber base is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33.1 percent to reach 195 million users worldwide in 2015.

Broad availability of GPS handsets and attractive pricing are key factors for widespread adoption of mobile navigation services. In the US, where GPS handset penetration is above 70 percent, navigation services for mobile phones has already reached about 8 percent of the total mobile subscriber base. A large share of these users gets navigation as part of a service bundle together with a voice and data plan from their mobile operator. As a response to the launch of free navigation applications for smartphones by Nokia and Google, more and more operators worldwide are now introducing bundled navigation services to offset the cost for end users. Navigation service providers and mobile operators are also trying to monetise services by introducing various feature and content up-sells that allow users to customise navigation applications to suit their personal needs.

“Mobile operators and service providers are now accelerating their efforts to create differentiated navigation experiences with unique local content to compete against free services”, said André Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. He adds that integration of navigation services with other applications to stimulate usage will become increasingly important for mobile operators that seek additional revenues from location-based advertising. Since relatively few subscribers need turn-by-turn guidance on a daily basis, complementary features such as social networking, restaurant and event guides improve stickiness.

About Berg Insight
Berg Insight offers premier business intelligence to the telecom industry. We produce concise reports providing key facts and strategic insights about pivotal developments in our focus areas. Our vision is to be the most valuable source of intelligence for our customers.

For additional information, please contact:
Johan Fagerberg, CEO
E-mail: johan.fagerberg@berginsight.com
Phone: +46 31 711 30 91

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Gothenburg, Sweden: New research from the analyst firm Berg Insight says that the worldwide installed base of smart electricity meters will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 31.1 percent between 2009 and 2015 to reach 302.5 million at the end of the period. During the next five years, penetration rates for smart metering technology are projected to increase from around 15–20 percent today to nearly 50 percent in Europe and North America, while Asia-Pacific is projected to soar from less than 1 percent to 25 percent by 2015. By the mid-2010s, the majority of all electricity meters shipped in the world’s leading economies is expected to have advanced functionalities and networking capabilities. Berg Insight anticipates that growth will continue in the second half of this decade, with many markets approaching 100 percent penetration by 2020.

Berg Insight has identified a number of common drivers behind the development in all regions. These range from increasing efficiency demands on the electricity sector to the implementation of energy policies related to power conservation, renewable generation and the security of supply. National governments play a key role in the adoption of smart meters through new future-oriented energy policies, addressing these issues. Several European countries have passed legislation that require nationwide rollouts before the end of this decade and in the US, federal grants for smart grid projects constitute one of the main initiatives aimed at the energy sector in the Obama administration’s economic stimuli package. In East Asia, governments directly influence developments through state-controlled national utilities. China’s State Grid Corporation and South Korea’s KEPCO have both announced their intentions to construct smart grids featuring smart meters before 2020.

“Smart metering is now a globally accepted mature mainstream technology”, said Tobias Ryberg, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight and author of the report. “All over the world we can see how IT and telecommunication has transformed the metering industry from a business of mechanical devices and manual labor to an arena for state-of-the-art technology in everything from wireless networking to data warehousing and complex system integration.” Looking ahead he predicts that the current wave of adoption will pave the way for an even greater transformation of the electricity sector where the access to detailed information in real-time will fundamentally change how power is generated, distributed and consumed.

For additional information, please contact:
Johan Fagerberg, CEO
E-mail: johan.fagerberg@berginsight.com
Phone: +46 31 711 30 91

Gothenburg, Sweden: According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of smart electricity meters in Europe will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.9 percent between 2009 and 2015 to reach 111.4 million at the end of the period. Providing consumers with detailed information about their electricity consumption the new generation of meters give customers control over energy costs and create financial incentives for energy savings. Moreover smart meters constitute the core building blocks in future smart grids that will incorporate a wide range of technologies related to renewable generation, distribution network optimisation and energy conservation.

The report identifies France, Spain and the UK as the next countries in Europe where smart metering will become introduced, following major rollouts in Italy and the Nordic region. “In the past year, EDF, Endesa and Iberdrola – three of the absolutely largest electricity network operators in Europe – have launched large-scale pilots in France and Spain, respectively. Next year, these deployments will evolve into nationwide rollouts in these countries”, said Tobias Ryberg, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. “On top of that, the UK’s largest electricity and gas retailer British Gas has launched the first major smart metering project for residential customers in the country. These developments in combination with rollouts in several other European countries will drive strong market growth over the next five years.”

For additional information, please contact:
Johan Fagerberg, CEO
E-mail: johan.fagerberg@berginsight.com
Phone: +46 31 711 30 91