I am very excited. I stand on the precipice of truly entering the mobile age in a few short days because I will rid myself of the "smart phone" I currently wrestle with on a daily basis and move to the next level by becoming an Android user of some kind. It's exciting because now I may actually be able to get something from my smart phone vs. the level of frustration I currently encounter as a BlackBerry Storm user.
It looks like my transformation is coming just in time too. According to an eMarketer survey, mobile content is growing by leaps and bounds and the revenue attached to it is growing as well.
eMarketer predicts mobile content revenues will rise from less than $1.15 billion in 2009 to more than $3.53 billion in 2014, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 20% over the period.
"The continuing advance of smart devices-including tablet-style computers, led by Apple's iPad-and the growing ubiquity of mobile broadband networks mean that consumers have to make fewer compromises when it comes to the consumption of games, music and video," said Noah Elkin, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, "Mobile Content: Games, Music and Video Take to the Cloud." "An improved user experience, and the ability to access an ever-expanding variety of content from the cloud, will attract many new mobile content consumers in the next five years."
For those of you who like pictures the one below will tell the story of what might be to come in the near future.
There is no denying that mobile is on the rise. Of course, if you decided to just read Internet marketing blogs and other sources you might believe that it has spread to the four corners of the earth. That's just not true. Smart phones represent upwards of 40% of the mobile phones in use in the US depending on who you read and believe.
While that's a big number it's still not even half so the majority of mobile users can't really access mobile data. Couple that with a crap economy and that number could very well stall for a while with people simply not being able to afford the cost of the phones and the data plans required to access the content.
So what am I trying to say here? I think that the success and the growth of mobile is certainly real and inevitable but the degree to which it happens is very much up to more circumstances than many are willing to recognize. As a result, marketers will continue to measure where they will get the most bang for their limited bucks and for many mobile may be seen as a luxury vs. a necessity.
So how do you view it? Is mobile going to grow despite economic pressures? Is it that important and has enough critical mass to truly push the smart phone craze to the real masses? What are the factors that will either keep it growing or slow it down?
Tell us how you feel.