Affordability of mobile phones for low-income consumers has been driven by lower service prices resulting from highly competitive market places.

China, India and Indonesia are the top three markets offering the most affordable handsets in Asia.

With regards to functionality, the market for smartphones has been growing across Asia Pacific.

“Undoubtedly, the mobile device is the most personal technology in use today, a fact that presents immense potential for engagement through mobile advertising and marketing,” says Rohit Dadwal, managing director of Mobile Marketing Association for Asia Pacific.

The increase of function-rich smartphones in the market with larger screen size, better web browsing capabilities and longer battery life, combined with ‘all you can eat’ data packages is driving the growth of mobile Internet, making it a ready channel to connect with customers,” says Dadwal.

The four key emerging mobile functionalities that are driving growth in Asia include mobile payment, mobile gaming, mobile healthcare and mobile music.

“Currently, Singapore and Hong Kong are the most mature electronic payment markets in Asia. The industry is growing rapidly and provides significant opportunities for all electronic payment channels including mobile platforms,” says Damien Duhamel, managing director of Solidiance.

“With a focus on services and product innovation, mobile operators and value-added services providers are aggressively working on payment options through mobile platforms – which will be the most lucrative segment in the medium term across Asia.”

Revenues from the mobile gaming for the Asia Pacific region have also significantly increased over the past few years.

The delivery of advertising within mobile applications like games creates a new revenue stream for publishers, distributors and service providers.

More importantly, the revenue may be used to partially or completely subsidize the price of mobile games or services that the application provides.

Mobile healthcare is another fast growing segment in Asia Pacific. A recent study estimated that the Asian mobile healthcare business is currently growing at 80% year on year.

In 2010, this business is estimated to be worth just under US 1billion with 70% of users in more advanced economies.

Applications include remote patient monitoring, mobile nursing, mobile medical records access, access to free mobile healthcare information etc.

“Asia Pacific is the prime testing ground for mobile healthcare.
Asia is wired, adopts technologies faster than any other continents, and there are billions of dollars being pumped into the Asian healthcare industry to improve the current infrastructure,” said Mark Lee, Medtech Practice Head of Solidiance.

The Asian mobile music market is also seeing rapid growth. Mobile operators in Korea have been the fastest to innovate and capture this market leading to soaring mobile music sales.

On the mobile value added services side, the Asia Pacific region has seen consistent growth in SMS usage. The Philippines remains the SMS capital of the world with the average user sending 400 SMS messages per month.

Early this year, it was estimated that over 2 billion cellphone subscriptions were active in the Asia Pacific region, which is half the global count.

The high penetration of mobile devices as compared with personal computers has presented marketers with the opportunity to convert a technology product into a medium for personalized engagement.

“Increasing mobile penetration along with the introduction and adoption of newer mobile technology in the region has made it impossible to ignore the potential of the medium as a marketing vehicle,” says Dadwal.

Research has shown that mobile phone users are receptive to this application of the technology and the increasing use of feature-rich phones further indicates an openness toward using the device for different applications, Dadwal added.