Mobile industry to reach 2 percent of global GDP

The revenue of worldwide mobile industry is set to reach almost 2 percent of global GDP in 2011, according to a report released on Friday. Based on industry analysis from the first six months of 2011, the mobile industry is expected to reach 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars in revenue, around 2 percent of global GDP, and mobile subscriptions are predicted to reach 6 billion globally this year, consulting firm Chetan Sharma said in its latest State of the Global Mobile Industry report. China and India will lead the way as they march towards 1 billion subscriptions each, and the United States will maintain the dominating place in mobile revenue, the report showed. Meanwhile, the report predicts worldwide mobile data revenue to top 300 billion dollars for the first time this year and at least 50 mobile carriers will reach 1 billion dollars in mobile revenues by the end of 2011. The report also expects the United States to continue its leading role in smartphone sales, which only account for 26 percent of global mobile sales. According to a survey by market research company Nielsen, 55 percent of U.S. consumers who purchased a new phone from March to May bought a smartphone, which marked the first time that smartphone sales surpassed feature phone (also known as "dumb phone"). In the report, Chetan Sharma analysts recommended carriers take measures, such as offloading traffic to Wi-Fi when necessary, to manage their network data and meet strong data demand.