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A new study from Juniper Research, the foremost experts in the telecommunications market, has found that over 1.5 billion mobile subscribers will use carrier billing globally to buy either digital content, physical goods, or digital tickets, in 2025.

However, it warns operators that if they wish to capitalise on this sizeable user base, they must maximise the attractiveness and value of the carrier billing opportunity to merchants by positioning their networks as distribution channels, rather than as mere payment facilitators.

Carrier billing is a mobile payment method allowing users to make purchases by charging payments to their mobile phone bill.

Operators Need to Become Content Distribution Channels
A key market driver in carrier billing has been the adoption of a new API called ‘Check Out’ that emerged from the CAMARA project; an open-source framework that standardises APIs for telecoms networks.

Whilst this has been key to increasing subscriber access to carrier billing, the report warns that deploying this API alone will not be enough to capitalise on the huge global carrier billing opportunity – with spend forecast to grow from $83 billion in 2025 to over $130 billion by 2029, according to Juniper Research.

The report urges operators to transform their networks into distribution channels; enabling mobile subscribers to purchase digital subscriptions via an operator’s consumer-facing platform. Unlike established bundling, this strategy is underpinned by the integration of content management services; allowing operators to have a direct billing relationship with their subscribers for digital content. Operators must maximise these platforms through revenue share agreements with digital service providers to capitalise on the large user base. Juniper Research

India’s smartphone market grew 4% year-over-year (YoY), with shipments reaching 151 million, according to IDC.

India became the fourth largest market for Apple in 2024, after USA, China, and Japan, as shipments reached a record 12 million units in the country, with 35% YoY growth. In 4Q24, Apple entered the Top 5 brands in India for the first time with a 10% share. iPhone 15 and iPhone 13 were the highest shipped models, accounting for 6% of overall shipments during the quarter.

“The vendors and channel partners continued to provide price cuts, discounts, and extended device warranties in the post-festive period in 4Q24. While financing options were available across price segments, its impact was more pronounced in mid-range and premium devices throughout the year, with the ‘No Cost EMIs’ for up to 24 months being most popular,” said Upasana Joshi, senior research manager, Devices Research, IDC Asia Pacific.

Key Highlights for 2024:
While the ASPs (average selling price) reached a new high of US$259 in 2024, the 2% YoY growth was significantly lower than the double-digit growth seen the previous three years. The entry-premium (US$200<US$400) segment registered the highest growth of 35.3% YoY, with a 28% share, up from 21% a year ago. The premium segment (US$600<US$800) grew 34.9%, with its share up to 4% from 3%. Key models were the iPhone 15/13/14, and Galaxy S23/S24. Apple and Samsung’s share increased in this segment, led by the previous generation models.

120 million 5G smartphones were shipped in the year. The share of 5G smartphone shipments increased to 79%, up from 55% in 2023, while 5G smartphone ASPs declined by 19% YoY to US$303. Within 5G, shipments of the mass budget (US$100<US$200) segment almost doubled, reaching 47% share. Xiaomi Redmi 13C, Apple iPhone 15, vivo Y28, Apple iPhone 13, and vivo T3X were the most shipped 5G models in 2024.

Shipments to offline and online channels grew almost at par by 4% YoY, and shares remained similar at 51% and 49%, respectively, in 2024. Samsung continued to lead in the online channel, while Apple climbed to the fourth position, with iPhone 15 as the highest shipped smartphone online. Within the offline channel, vivo maintained its dominance, while OPPO and Xiaomi climbed to the second and third spots, respectively.

Overall, vivo surpassed Samsung for the leadership position in 2024, with its consistent omnichannel play, diversified portfolio across price segments and channel support. Nothing registered the highest growth overall, followed by Motorola and iQOO annually. The long tail of brands collectively gained ground in 2024, as the share of the top five vendors depleted from 76%, 68%, and 65% in 2022, 2023, and 2024 respectively.

54 million feature phones were shipped annually, declining by 11% YoY. Transsion continued to lead with a 30% share, followed by Nokia and Lava. Overall, 205 million mobile phones were shipped, registering a 1% annual drop.

“With a low single-digit growth in 2024, growth in 2025 hinges on a stronger performance in the mass segment (US$100<US$200) and more offerings in the entry-premium segment (US$200<US$400) for upgraders,” says Navkendar Singh, associate vice president, Devices Research, IDC India. “Generative AI features and use cases will start being key differentiators, moving beyond flagship models and becoming more prevalent across different price points. Online-focused long-tail brands will venture offline to sustain growth. However, the weakening rupee could impact ASPs, potentially restricting annual growth to below 5% in 2025.”

IDC

Brazil’s finance minister rejected on Monday a report saying the country was planning to impose taxes on U.S. tech companies if President Donald Trump proceeds with plans to introduce a 25% tariff on all U.S. steel imports.

“The information is not correct,” Fernando Haddad wrote on social media, after the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s administration was mulling tariffs on big tech firms as retaliation.

The South American country is one of the largest sources of U.S. steel imports as well as a top market for many big tech companies.

Trump said on Sunday he would introduce on Monday new 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, on top of existing metals duties, in another escalation of his trade policy shakeup.

“The Brazilian government has made the sensible decision to only make statements at the appropriate time and based on concrete decisions, not on announcements that could be misinterpreted or revised,” Haddad said.

According to the Folha report, which cited an unnamed Brazilian authority, a potential Brazilian levy could have affected Amazon, Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Instagram, and Alphabet-owned Google.

A finance ministry official in 2024 had already floated the idea of a potential tax on big tech companies to meet fiscal targets in case there was a government revenue shortfall this year. Reuters

Israeli contract chipmaker Tower Semiconductor forecast first-quarter 2025 revenue slightly above estimates on Monday, on expectations of resilient demand for its chips from the automobile sector.

The US-listed shares of the company were up 1 per cent in premarket trading.

Tower makes analog and mixed-signal semiconductors used mainly in automobiles for “fabless” firms, which design chips but outsource their fabrication.

Despite the automobile sector struggling to clear inventory since its excessive stockpiling during the pandemic, a trend exacerbated by a slowdown in demand for electric vehicles in the past year, Tower Semiconductor has been resilient in recent quarters and has continued to supply its chips.

The chipmaker forecast first-quarter revenue of $358 million, with an upward or downward range of 5 per cent, slightly above analysts’ estimates of $357.5 million, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Tower posted fourth-quarter revenue of $387.2 million, which was in-line with estimates.

Net profit for the quarter ending December 31 was $55.1 million, below estimates of $58.7 million, due to taking on its portion of incremental costs of the greenfield chipmaking plant in Agrate, Italy.

On an adjusted basis, the company reported quarterly profit of 59 cents per share, compared with analysts’ estimates of 52 cents per share. Reuters

Investment in data centres and cloud infrastructure is still needed despite DeepSeek challenging the cost efficiency of large AI models, Baidu CEO Robin Li said.

“The investment in cloud infrastructure is still very much required. In order to come up with models that are smarter than everyone else, you have to use more compute,” Li told attendees at the World Government Summit in Dubai.

Compute refers to the hardware resources that make AI models work, allowing them to train on data, process information, and generate predictions.

Li’s comments come as Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has gained global attention for developing language models that match the performance of leading systems like OpenAI’s GPT while using significantly less computing power, raising questions about the necessity of massive AI infrastructure spending.

Baidu was among the first Chinese companies to launch AI products following OpenAI’s ChatGPT release in late 2022. However, its large language model Ernie, which Baidu claims matches GPT-4’s capabilities, has seen limited public adoption.

Li has made bold claims about China’s AI landscape in the past, including saying that it was unlikely that another OpenAI-like company would emerge from China. He had also advocated for closed-source models as the only viable path for AI development.

At Tuesday’s summit, Li acknowledged that DeepSeek’s sudden emergence demonstrated the unpredictable nature of innovation.

“You just don’t know when and where innovations come from,” he said.

Li added that U.S. chip sanctions have forced Chinese companies to innovate within computing constraints.

He also appeared to soften his stance on closed-source development, now acknowledging that open-source approaches could accelerate AI adoption.

“If you open things up, a lot of people will be curious enough to try it. This will help spread the technology much faster.” Reuters