Gartner: Mobile sales exploding worldwide

If you needed another reason to seriously consider investing more money in mobile marketing this could be it: according to a recent report from Gartner, mobile phone sales worldwide will reach 1.28 billion this year. That is an 11% increase over 2007.

by Kristina Knight

Because of the strong growth worldwide, mobile marketing is becoming an even greater influencer around the world. Mobile sales are expected to continue it's double digit growth rate through 2009.

The largest growth area is expected to be in the Asia/Pacific region (17.9% growth), followed by Japan (9% increase) and North America (5% increase). Western Europe is the only area expected to see mobile sales decline (1.5%).

The biggest change for mobile providers is one of the biggest reasons marketers should take notice. Because there is such competition between mobile service providers, they are being forced to lower prices again and again; at the same time, consumers want more from their packages, specifically from their data packages. By partnering with a mobile provider to help offset some of these costs, mobile marketers can kill two birds with one stone. They can open their marketing strategy to include more consumers in more countries by sponsoring some content on a mobile provider's site. At the same time, marketers can offer free content - games, ring tones, etc. - in exchange for ads.