Communications and Technology Industry Research

Lots of people use mobile phones, but not everyone uses them for the same purpose. This translates to differences in the amount of money certain types of users will spend on devices and services. Business users are an especially lucrative market.

 

That’s according to a new white paper from ABI Research (News - Alert), based on a survey of more than 1,200 wireless subscribers. Despite the fact that business users tend to spend more than consumers, however, service providers could do a better job catering to this premium market.

 

“Operators still need to develop their capabilities to better serve business customers,” ABI analyst Dan Shey (News - Alert) said in a report about the research. “Such users deliver the highest ARPU for both business applications and entertainment. Combining the two will pay dividends. This includes the need for operators for more high-end phones targeted to business users, and to drive toward greater service integration.”

 

Research conducted by ABI revealed that, for business customers, average revenue per user (ARPU) is 24 percent higher than among consumers. The gap is even wider for mobile data services, where business users spend 80 percent more than their consumer counterparts. This is true even for consumer centric services (multimedia and entertainment apps); business usage of such offerings is 78 percent higher than for consumers.

 

It’s not only service providers who can better cash in on the business market. Device manufacturers, too, stand to benefit.

 

“One key to greater success is to target the implementation of Wi-Fi into devices used by customers with the greatest need for access cost reductions, and the greatest ability to connect to Wi-Fi access points, such as international travelers,” Shey said in the report.

 

Similar revenue opportunities for targeted feature improvements also exist in lower-end phones, ABI said.