Philippines wrestles with slow internet as mobile grows
The Philippines has one of
the lowest smartphone penetration figures for a country with one of the highest
mobile penetration figures overall.On Device Research has tallied the country’s mobile penetration at 101% while only 15% of Filipino users have smartphones (For comparison, smartphone penetration in the Philippines is also the lowest of all the countries in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia at 80%, Thailand at 49%, and Indonesia at 23%). Various contributing factors such as the traditionally high prices of smartphones and the notoriously poor internet speeds in the country have hindered the growth of smartphone use. But recent research predicts that a boom in the Philippines’ smartphone market will occur over the next year.
On Device Research cites
predictions from the Oxford Business Group which estimates that the
penetration of smartphones will greatly increase over the next year and reach
50% in 2015—over a tripling of the current figure — despite the unavoidable
problem of lagging internet speeds.
This prediction, if true,
opens the door for a ton of foreign interest in selling smartphones in the
Philippines. On Device Research shows that Samsung is currently the leader, holding
43% of the market. Google’s Android is the likely winner when considering which
types of phones will become more popular, mostly because of Android-based
phones’ lower prices than Apple’s.
But the country is going to
continue to wrestle with slow internet, especially once more mobile web users
are on board. The Philippines has the slowest average speed in the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations, according to Net Index rankings by broadband
testing company Ookla. Mobile does fare a bit better, but still sits at the
fifth spot in the region, with Smart Communications and Globe Telecom as the
two dominating mobile internet providers. They combine to make a total of 83%
of the market share with Sun Cellular in third place.
Speed isn’t the only
obstacle for internet in the Philippines; in February, the Philippines Supreme
Court upheld the constitutionality of an internet libel law that
allows the government to pursue authors of content deemed “defamatory” to the
government. Many see this ruling more along the lines of censorship than
anything else. Restricting content published on the internet is not a good way
to venture into the burgeoning internet market, and certainly does not
encourage entrepreneurship in the field. But the Philippines is going to have
to figure out how to improve web speeds and manage content laws as the
internet-connected device market surges over the next year. (Source: Juliana
Kenny/blouinnews.com)
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