Reineke Reitsma

[Posted by Reineke Reitsma]

This week Forrester published a report called 'Western European Mobile Forecast, 2009 To 2014'.

Some highlights:

  • There were 467 million "phone" SIMs in Europe at year-end 2008, which will increase to 482 million in 2014
  • The mix of Prepay and Postpay will shift in favor of Postpay
  • Mobile Internet penetration will reach 39% in 2014

Western Europe Mobile Internet Penetration, 2009 to 2014 

But don't take this European number and run with it: with more than 50 mobile operators, 250 MVNOs, 12 different languages, and as many different regulatory and competitive environments as there are European countries, the European mobile landscape is highly fragmented. For example, did you know that Finland has only 10% prepay penetration, while Italy has 88%? Or that Sweden leads the mobile Internet race with 22% adoption?

But one thing is true for all of them: Mobile Internet will hit mass-market adoption in Europe over the next five years.