Gemalto and Netsize launch the brand new Netsize Guide by Gemalto today, the comprehensive reference work on the state of mobile technology and its impact on business and society.

Available as a free PDF download today from www.netsize.com, the 10th edition has identified three themes that characterize the state of mobile today and its future:

• Transaction – How we’ve come to rely on mobile devices for commerce from researching products to making purchases.
• Transformation – How mobile devices are increasingly driving content, communications and connectivity.
• Trust – How we require — and will soon demand — simple, transparent services and devices we can trust.

Aptly titled Truly Mobile, The Netsize Guide by Gemalto underlines these three key themes, supported by insights and interviews with over a dozen senior executives from companies across the business ecosystem including ARM, Atlas Premium Brands, BNP Paribas, CMO Council, The Coca-Cola Company, Gameloft, GlobalPlatform, Informa Telecoms & Media, Millennial Media, SingTel, Texas Instruments, Trusted Logic, Yahoo! and others.

We thank Peggy Anne Salz — chief analyst and publisher of MobileGroove.com, a top 50 source of analysis and commentary on all things mobile — who once again did a great job of interviewing the companies and writing the theme chapters of the book.

Highly rated …

In its 10-year history the Netsize Guide has built a large and loyal audience of readers who rate it among their must-read industry resources.

According to a 2010 survey of Netsize Guide readers, the majority of respondents — that is to say, YOU — gave the Netsize Guide high marks indeed! On a scale of 1-to-10, 75 percent of respondents gave the book an ’8′ or higher. Specifically, 37 percent gave it an ’8′, 29 percent gave it a ’9′ and 9 percent awarded it a perfect ’10′. You also told us you consider the Netsize Guide to be better or much better than other mobile industry reports. Allow us to thank you again for your participation in our survey and for your high appreciation of our work!

Packed with stats …

In line with our long track record for excellence the Netsize Guide by Gemalto uniquely brings together a wealth of market statistics from its partners Informa Telecoms & Media, comScore and SocialBakers. The 220-page book is packed with detailed market forecasts that reveal current operator market share, smartphone penetration, and consumer usage of mobile apps and social network Facebook across over 40 countries, and 3-year forecasts (2011-2014) for selected data.

An expert resource for benchmarking and planning …

Covering the use of mobile technologies for business and entertainment applications, the Netsize Guide has served as a beacon for business professionals and executives across industry sectors for a decade. Its unique format represents a balance of thought leadership and exclusive C-level interviews with in-depth market analysis, practical case studies and a wealth of practical mobile telecommunications data. Thus, the Netsize Guide by Gemalto is an indispensible knowledge resource for benchmarking and planning mobile services, allowing mobile professionals everywhere to stay up to date with mobile trends.

… available today as a free pdf download

The Netsize Guide by Gemalto is available as a free pdf download directly from the Netsize website and from our global launch partners including: 4A’s, AIME,the Mobile Data Association (MDA), Mobile Entertainment, the MEF, MobileGroove and ServicesMobiles.

We are confident you will enjoy reading this Netsize Guide by Gemalto and benefit from its insights. It is an essential read certain to serve you well as an industry reference for the year to come. Please feel free to contact us any time with your comments or ideas via Twitter (@NetsizeGuide and @NetsizeCorp), email [guide (at) netsize.com] or our websites www.gemalto.com and www.netsize.com.

Alexander Vlasblom
Marketing Communications Director, Netsize & Trusted Logic
Gemalto

The largest mobile network operator is Vodacom (52% market share, source: Vodacom), MTN is second (35% market share, source: MTN) and Cell C, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Oger Telecom, is third (4.2 million subscribers, 8.8% market share, source: Cell C). Some 7% have 3G subscriptions.

Mobile, anyone?

South Africa is a very attractive market for mobile services. According to a report from Frost & Sullivan, demand for mobile content services in South Africa will grow by an average of 15 per cent per year until 2013.

It is also the most advanced mobile territory in Africa, with a European-style infrastructure, and consumers whose first introduction to telecoms and the web comes from mobile. Mobile broadband usage is as common as fixed line.

The Mobile Marketing Association recently released some interesting statistics about the phenomenal growth in this market and the current state of mobile adoption in South Africa, as summarized in an article by 20fourLabs.

South Africa is a nation sparkling with confidence, higher than many parts of the world (source: Bureau for Economic Research), and with great ambitions as the 2010 World Cup is gripping this sports mad country!

Launching mobile content services in South Africa

In November Netsize launched its mPayment operator-based billing solution with South Africa coverage with MO premium and MT premium billing. On Vodacom and MTN (total 87% market share) both MT and MO premium are available, and a long number for sending and receiving messages.

Multiple price points per short code are possible. MO premium is available on Cell C with a single price point per short code. For the most common price points shared short codes will be available.

Applications …

Popular mobile applications include banking (money transfer services), advertisement (mobile marketing) and entertainment (content/infotainment and social networking).

Whereas traditional direct marketing and online marketing is costly and less effective due to the language situation and lack of broadband access, mobile is providing an alternative marketing channel. Direct and personal, it has the widest reach of all in this vast country.

With 4 times more people using sms than email, it is clear that in this country the mobile is everyone’s “first screen.”

Regulatory aspects

As most countries, South Africa has put in place industry self regulation. The WASPA Code of Conduct promotes fairness and decency in dealings with subscribers and members in the content value chain.

Advertising must follow the rules in the Advertising Code of Conduct, with clear communication on pricing matters. Operators have set some specific rules as well in particular for MT subscription services.

Online seminar

If you would like to know more on how to launch mobile content services in South Africa and Netsize mobile messaging, billing and marketing solutions, we invite you to view the Netsize online seminar on South Africa at www.netsize.com.

Netsize Smart Application Billing enables Application Stores to use operator based billing to charge for application downloads and usage, and permits charging from the mobile application itself.

“Reaching the largest consumer audience and making it easy to buy content are the key success factors for Application Stores. With Smart Application Billing they reach 1.3 billion consumers globally, and consumers can conveniently purchase applications and application extensions via their mobile operator phone bill in both Pay per Use and Subscription business models,” says Stanislas Chesnais, Chairman and CEO, Netsize.

“Our Application Store customers observe an increase of their revenues by 400% as soon as they add operator based billing. Having an alternative for credit card billing clearly removes an obstacle in the purchasing process.” He adds, “On Application Store visits that use a mobile device over a Wi-Fi connection we record a 30% increase in payment transactions. It proves the business case for operator based billing as a successful internet payment method.”

Smart Application Billing uniquely combines three operator based billing methods: Direct Operator Billing, Premium SMS Messaging, and WAP Billing. Depending on the characteristics of the consumer’s network operator Smart Application Billing dynamically proposes the preferred billing method to the application. Direct Operator Billing and Premium Messaging allow the user to make the payment while remaining in the application. WAP Billing is used when the other methods are not available. The user makes the payment outside of the application on a mobile internet payment page.

Direct Operator Billing is the billing method where an installed application on a mobile handset initiates a billing transaction via Netsize directly to the user’s mobile network operator.

Netsize is the delivering operator billing solutions to some of the largest Application Stores. Sony Ericsson has chosen Netsize mPayment for PlayNow™ arena to cover multiple countries in Europe.

“Direct consumer charging by mobile operators remains the favorite purchasing method of consumers to get entertainment content or to access services over SMS or Mobile Internet/WAP media,” says Stanislas Chesnais, Chairman and CEO, Netsize.  “We witness 800% transaction volume growth year-to-year mainly held up by Mobile Internet/WAP services growth.  Our higher aggregation level enables the best revenue pay-out to publishers.  Covering more than 100 mobile operators in 28 countries makes Netsize the global market leader.”

“The Netsize mPayment solution enables publishers and content providers to achieve 12% more revenue in comparison with other implementations, thanks to an in-depth knowledge of the operator’s payment platforms,” says Stanislas Chesnais. mPayment also enables reaching any consumer worldwide over alternative methods such as credit card, PayPal™, and other e-Wallets.

“The automatic and transparent consumer authentication makes mobile purchasing easy and avoids users from having to open an online account.  The secured transaction is initiated from a single click without entering sensitive data which ensures the best transaction achievement ratio.  The ease of use and convenience quickly recognized by consumers enables mobile handsets to be the tool for purchasing physical goods,” says Stanislas Chesnais.

Analytics is an integral part of the mPayment solution.  mPayment Analytics provides customers with a billing and payment dashboard with three statistics views.  The summary view shows the key performance indicators such as revenue and transaction quantity split by country and handset model.  The real-time statistics view shows all processed transactions allowing users to filter up to twenty criteria.  The customized statistics view enables users to build his view by service, country, operator, or business model (subscription or pay-per-use).