Disqus
A new report from Juniper Research warns that the ongoing global recession could significantly cause the mobile entertainment market to decline. Juniper’s best case scenario estimates that the market will reach nearly $36 billion in 2010, while the worst case could see the market declining to 7% growth per year.
Using a scenario-based approach to assess the impact of the recession on the mobile entertainment industry, the report found that average annual growth over the next two years declines from nearly 19% under the best case scenario to less than 7% in the worst case, with mobile TV, user-generated content and music amongst those sectors which are particularly exposed.
Among the reasons quoted are lower discretionary spend, lack of available funding for developers, and faster migration to ad-supported apps and services.
Report author Dr Windsor Holden argues that operators may perceive that consumers will be increasingly reluctant — or unable — to purchase content. As a result, they [operators] may be less likely to roll out expensive, higher risk services: mobile TV is a prime example.
However, the Juniper report found that some sectors, such as adult services and gambling, were less exposed than others.
Other findings from the report include:
- Under all scenarios, mobile music will remain the largest single mobile entertainment sector, despite the continuing decline in revenues from ringtones
- In addition to the negative impact of the downturn, growth in service deployment and adoption remains constrained by the excessive cost of data services across many markets.
More information about Juniper’s study “Mobile Entertainment in a Recession: Scenarios, Markets & Forecasts 2009-2013″ is available from their website.
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
