The US mobile data market surpassed $20bn (£13bn) for the first time in Q4 2012 and now makes up 43 per cent of mobile industry service revenues in the country, according to analyst Chetan Sharma. Data could make up more than 50 per cent of this market by the end of 2013, the Chetan Sharma consultancy firm said. All three major Japanese operators are now past the 60 per cent mark.

The market grew by 3 per cent from Q3 to Q4 2012, 15 per cent year-on-year, and while data ARPU grew by $0.48 or 2 per cent quarter-on-quarter, average voice ARPU declined by $0.64. 2012 was the first year that the US market saw a decline in both messaging revenues and volumes.

Total data revenues in the US in 2013 hit $79bn, higher than any other sector in the mobile service market, which had revenues of $182bn in total. Data revenue is expected to reach $90bn in 2013.

As smartphone data consumption is averaging close to 1 GB per month, network upgrades, policy management and data offloading have emerged as top solutions being deploying around the world. “However, a long-term video solution is still elusive,” he said.

Apple – 6 per cent global shipment share – 70 per cent of profit

The connected device segment grew 12 per cent during the year but only 1 per cent in Q4, with smartphones making up more than 84 per cent of devices sold in this quarter. The average number of connected devices per household in 2012 was more than five. “While the US penetration of smartphones is over 50 per cent as we reported last year, the 50 per cent of the sub base is concentrated in only 30 per cent of the households thus leaving plenty of growth left in the marketplace,” the firm said.

Although the rise of Samsung was one of the “most captivating stories of 2012”, having displaced Nokia as the largest OEM by unit volume in Q1 and making more revenue from Android than rest of the ecosystem put together, Sharma said that Apple clearly dominates. Apple had a 51 per cent share of sales among the top four leading manufacturers during the year, growing to 59 per cent in Q4 after the iPhone 5 launch. Although the company only had a 6 per cent of the global shipment share but more than 70 per cent of profits. Additionally, 95 per cent of the profits in the tablet segment go to Apple. 

“The fourth wave has arrived, with the shift towards services,” he added.

End of tier two operators in the US?

Operators in the US added 9m new connections during the year, a decline of 56 per cent, with the contract market suffering a 97 per cent drop. While Verizon and AT&T added 6.3m postpaid subs. Sprint and T-Mobile  lost more than 3.3m. “The last year T-Mobile had year-on-year positive postpaid net-adds growth, George Bush was still the president, Facebook was in diapers, and Pinterest wasnt even born yet,” the analyst said.

“T-Mobile suffered its tenth straight quarter of postpaid declines. Cumulatively, in the last fifteen quarters, while Verizon and AT&T have added 15m and 8m postpaid subs respectively, Sprint and T-Mobile have lost approximately 4.7M each.” The tier-2 operators in the US market are “practically done”, Sharma said. During 2012, the top four suffered a 77 per cent decline in net-adds.”

US companies still dominate the top five largest mobile companies in terms of profit share. China Mobile leads the industry, with Apple, Verizon, AT&T and NTT DoCoMo completing the rankings.