The economy, a generational walk, and data growth

The good news is the major leading economic indicators are showing some nice improvements. Most economists believe this is a sign we are headed out of recession and into recovery. Below is a link to a graph of an index of major indicators from the conference board showing this trend. What I find most interesting is the periodicity of recessions and recovery. Seems like a normal business cycle to me.

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2009/10/22/saupload_ilei0909index.jpg.

So, what does this graph have to do with a generational walk and data growth? Well, over the next 10 years there is expected to be a major shift in the generational make up of consumer spending in the US. The boomer generation’s contribution to potential consumer demand is expected to decline, while generation Y’s contribution to potential consumer demand is expected to increase. Moreover, Gen Ys tend to be very value conscious and price sensitive. The next link shows the generational walk I’m referring to.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/168342-the-future-of-u-s-consumer-spending-it-s-a-generational-thing?source=email.

Let me continue my train of thought. There have been several reports out recently pointing to continued, rapid adoption and growth of wireless data services. One of the predictions has the compounded annual growth rate for mobile data at 131 percent over the next 5 years. A big percentage of this is no doubt Gen Y. Okay, I know what you are thinking; get to the point, right? Well, if our point of departure is the beginning of the fragile recovery noted in the graph mentioned above and linked to the first URL, and the Gen Y group is taking over as the major demand driver for consumer spending as noted before and depicted in the graph linked to the second URL, and they are one of the big contributors of the mobile data growth just mentioned, and they are value conscious and price sensitive, wireless carriers better figure out fast how to lower their costs to deliver all that Gen Y generated mobile data traffic. If they don't, the telecommunication industry’s contribution to a long term economic recovery will be in question. Do I hear the stampede to 3G and 4G networks?

Link to mobile data growth projections:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-520862.html.