Driven by a new generation of smartphones, U.S. mobile data revenues are expected to grow by 16 percent annually and reach US$100 billion by 2017, according to a new report by media research firm SNL Kagan, MediaPost reported Friday.

The report indicated more than triple annual increases of 5 percent for the wireless services over the next decade. The average number of data subscribers will rise by 5.8 percent in that period, but wireless customers are only expected to increase by 2.9 percent.

While mobile voice service is nearly saturated in the United States, carriers are relying on mobile data revenues to compensate for the slowing growth in new subscribers, which leads to operators' investment in new high-speed networks and launches of new devices capable of delivering text, music, video, games and Internet access, MediaPost reported.

“We're kind of in the middle of the storm right now. The iPhone really lit the fire and now everyone is trying to catch up with their own versions,” said SNL Kagan analyst John Fletcher. He said the possible iPhone killers include the Instinct from Samsung Electronics and Sprint, the Voyager and Vu from LG Electronics and the BlackBerry Bold 900.

According to SNL Kagan, the emergence of media phones with large screens and 3G or 4G networks is just the beginning of their surge beyond business users into the mobile mainstream. The report stated that about 15 percent of wireless subscribers used media phones at the end of 2007, which will jump to 26 percent by this year's end. By 2017, the figure is predicted will reach 87 percent, MediaPost reported.

Those will drive smartphone adoption include mobile video and TV, games and music. Meanwhile, major operators are seeing mobile data increases mainly catalysted by text messaging, according to the new report.