Nearly 7 Percent of U.S. Content is Consumed on Mobile Devices

U.S. consumers are increasingly connecting to digital content using a variety of devices such as smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices. In August 2011, the share of non-computer traffic for the U.S. increased to 6.8 percent from just 6.2 percent at the end of the previous quarter.

The largest percentage from this share came from mobile devices, which drove 4.4 percent of total digital traffic in the U.S.

The second largest driver of non-computer traffic was the tablet category, contributing nearly two percent of total traffic. Nearly 7 Percent of U.S. digital content now consumed on mobiles

U.S. Mobile Content Revenue Forecast

Mobile content might not be a huge business at the moment, but it is about three times as large as mobile advertising is, in 2010.

Going forward, it looks as though gaming and video are where the larger opportunities might lie.

Mobile Growth Shifts to Content

Mobile revenue growth now is shifting to mobile broadband and data, as you would expect, with the saturation of basic voice connections.

The next wave of growth will come from commerce and content sales, PricewaterhouseCoopers now predicts.

Interest in Content Marketing Grows, Especially in Mobile Context

There are two huge takeaways from Junta42's new survey of 250 marketing professionals in North America: the dramatic growth of content marketing and the upsurge of interest in mobile content (blogs, social networks, video, newsletters, white papers, webinars, podcasts, custom events, magazines and so forth).

(click images for larger view)

Approximately 10 percent of marketers already are leveraging content through mobile applications and 38 percent say mobile content is something they need to know more about. Of all content marketing areas, only mobile marketing rose year over year re: educational needs, says Junta42.

56 percent of companies plan to increase budgets for mobile marketing in 2010 and a hike of 17 percent in 2010 marketing budgets will be funded by drawing money away from traditional channels such as print.

For the third straight year, marketers are planning to spend significantly more on their content marketing efforts in 2010 and 59 percent of marketing professionals surveyed plan to increase their spending on content initiatives, compared to 56 percent in 2009 and 42 percent in 2008.

Content marketing comprises 33 percent of the total marketing budget, in fact. Smaller companies are spending more on their content marketing as a percentage of budget than larger companies. Small
companies (less than 99 employees) spend approximately 40 percent of their total budget on content initiatives.

Larger companies (100 employees or more) spend an average of 18 percent of their budget for content marketing.

source

"Superphones" Will Drive Widespread Media Consumption, Glaser Says

Many observers have called the mobile phone or smartphone the "fourth screen" for multimedia content, and RealNetworks agrees with that assessment.

In fact, a new generation of devices one might call a "superphone" will be a primary way users consume video and audio content, says Rob Glaser, former RealNetworks CEO.

The future of media will be information consumed on superphones while on the go, Glaser argues. By 2013 the installed base of smart and superphones will exceed the installed base of PCs, and those Web-surfing devices will be mobile.

People want digital persistence, he argues. In other words, they want their content to be available everywhere, at any point in time, Glaser argues. That implies a world in which content is available on any number of devices, with methods for verifying the right any single has to use paid-for content.

That's part of the thinking behind the cable industry's "TV Everywhere" initiative, but also a way for cable distributors to maintain their relevance in a world with alternate distirbution channels.

Such ability to experience TV or video on mobile devices will have repercussions for a wide range of participants in the video ecosystem. Mobile providers will have to supply an order of magnitude more bandwidth. Devices will have to adapt to form factors conducive to media player usage.

Distributors will have to work to maintain their relevance in the content distribution system, and mobile marketers will find mobile video a more-attractive marketing medium.

Books Lead Apple App Store Inventory

There are lots of applications available in the Apple App Store. But a huge number of those items are discrete book or game titles, not applications. And those most applications downloaded from the App Store are of the "free" sort, about 75 percent of the books and games are "for fee" downloads.

In fact, "books" are the biggest category in the store, followed by games.

The App Store is an awful lot like iTunes, it appears: a distribution mechanism for content.

Lower European Mobile Data, Texting Prices

Ofcom Chief Executive Ed Richards is lobbying European Commission telecom regulators to slash the allowed prices of international text messaging and mobile Internet access, says Jonathan Prynn, Evening Standard reporter. It appears Richards has in mind prices lower than currently offered by mobile operator O2. O2 charges £3 for one megabyte of data transferred.

So it appears Richards seeks prices significantly lower than the £4.11 per megabyte level that tends to be the average now. European mobile carriers probably will hope to stave off such regulation by voluntarily dropping their tariffs in time for an announcement at Mobile World Congress meeting in February.

The moves would be good for consumers, and obviously financially damaging for carriers. As always is the case, the lower tariffs also would make it harder for upstart competitors to grow their companies by undercutting the high tariffs.

Big Changes Ahead in Entertainment Market

Up to a quarter of the entertainment consumed by people in five years time will have been created, edited and shared within their peer circle rather than coming out of traditional media groups, Nokia says. This phenomenon, dubbed 'Circular Entertainment', has been identified by Nokia as a result of a global study into the future of entertainment.

The study, carried out by The Future Laboratory, interviewed trend-setting consumers from 17 countries about their digital behaviors and lifestyles signposting emerging entertainment trends.

"The trends we are seeing show us that people will have a genuine desire not only to create and share their own content, but also to remix it, mash it up and pass it on within their peer groups: a form of collaborative social media," says Mark Selby, Nokia VP.

"We think it will work something like this; someone shares video footage they shot on their mobile device from a night out with a friend, that friend takes that footage and adds an MP3 file, the soundtrack of the evening, then passes it to another friend. That friend edits the footage by adding some photographs and passes it on to another friend and so on," he says.

Other findings:

- 23% buy movies in digital format
- 35% buy music on MP3 files
- 25% buy music on mobile devices
- 39% watch TV on the internet
- 23% watch TV on mobile devices
- 46% regularly use IM, 37% on a mobile device
- 29% regularly blog
- 28% regularly access social networking sites
- 22% connect using technologies such as Skype
- 17% take part in Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games
- 17% upload to the internet from a mobile device