Mobiles & Women: A Global Opportunity report launched!

\by Karen Coppock
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Vital Wave Consulting's CEO, Brooke Partridge, along with the GSMA's CEO Rob Conway and Cherie Blair, Founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women all spoke at the official launch of the Women & Mobile: A Global Opportunity launch this evening in Barcelona.

The Women & Mobile report is the first comprehensive view of women and mobile phones in the developing world. It starts by noting that a woman is 21% less likely than a man to own a mobile phone in low and middle-income countries. This translates into 300 million fewer women than men own mobile phone in these countries. If this "gender gap" were to be closed, mobile network operators would earn $US13 billion in incremental revenue each year.

The report segments women into five main demographic groups (Women at the Base of the Pyramid, Women in the home, Women in School, Career Women and Rural Women that Work) and characterizes their mobile phone ownership usage, barriers to adoption and preferences. It also includes ten case studies highlighting the strategies and tactics that both mobile network operators and non-profit organizations across the globe are implementing to increase the usage and impact of mobile phones around the world.

Over the next five year, 2 out of every 3 new mobile phone subscribers are likely to be female..that fact alone should motivate mobile phone industry players - and development community - to understand women's usage (and barriers) of mobile phones. This report is an excellent primer to the topic.