Motorola Inc projects that the number of users of wireless devices worldwide will double in the next five years to about 550 million in 2000 from about 225m in 1995, Merle Gilmore, executive vice-president and president and general manager of Motorola’s Land Mobile Products Group, told the conference. He also said that the phenomenal growth in use of various wireless devices in the past five years from just 70 million users in 1990 still leaves about 98% of the world’s population as an untapped market opportunity – and Motorola has to benefit from this growth, because 60% of Motorola’s revenues are from wireless communications. Gilmore sees a big opportunity arising for two-way radio because it offers instant, on-the-spot conferencing and two-way communications. Asked about price erosion in wireless handsets, which hit Motorola’s most recent quarterly earnings, Gilmore confessed that pricing pressure in the handset market will be an ongoing issue.
