Mobile games, music and video are fueling a growing market for mobile content – revenues from which will reach an estimated $1.54 billion in the USA this year, according to a new report from eMarketer.

[via Cellular News]

“The total value of rich content belies the total value of a rich content proposition. We estimate that a mobile network operator (MNO) in a developed market that has a 35% market share of subscribers would lose 4% of its market share over the following five years if it halted investment in its MCA proposition,” says Morrish.

The total revenue impact of halting investment in MCA will be in excess of nine times the loss of direct MCA revenue, because of the indirect revenue effects of losing market share and corresponding voice, SMS and other data service revenue. It is clear that investing to maintain a competitive MCA portfolio is significantly more important to MNOs than direct revenue suggests.

Opportunities for MNOs to develop MCA propositions that act as long-term competitive differentiators do exist. These primarily relate to multi-platform plays that either take the differentiating qualities of exclusive content in a fixed environment and apply them to a mobile environment, or that include the synchronisation and management of content and information across both fixed and mobile environments. The latter of these two opportunities is, in fact, under threat from over-the-top players such as Google. MNOs that are able to develop such long-term differentiating MCA services can expect to enjoy substantial indirect revenue benefits.

The implications for tariffing are profound: operators must carefully balance the need to generate direct revenue from MCA against the competitive benefits of offering a compelling service to the maximum number of customers.

“Some elements of an MCA proposition should potentially be regarded as loss leaders – ‘super applications’ that are core to engaging the consumer,” said Morrish.

Source : Analysys Mason Press Release

The Ovi App Wizard takes the user-submitted information and creates an app that can be “delivered on more than 100 Nokia device models in more than 180 countries around the world.” Software can be free, ad-supported or priced according to the user’s specifications.

Source: Gigaom

According to data compiled by app store analytics firm Distimo, Games represents the dominant iPad app category, making up 32 percent of available app, followed by Entertainment and Books. Distimo reports that 80 percent of all iPad applications fall into the Paid Apps segment–by comparison, 73 percent of iPhone and iPod touch applications carry premium price tags. The average iPad app costs $4.67, as opposed to $3.82 on iPhone–Medical apps for iPad lead the way at an average price of $42.11, followed by Finance apps at $18.48. On the iPhone, Medical apps average $10.74, and Finance apps average $5.74.

Source: Fierce Mobile

In addition, the global mobile applications economy is set to be worth $17.5 billion by 2012, according to an independent report commissioned by GetJar, which claims to be the world’s second-largest app store. This would mean that the value of applications sold would be greater than the value of CDs sold in 2012—$13.83 billion, according to world music trade body IFPI April 2009.

To understand the potential of the global mobile applications economy, GetJar commissioned independent consulting firm Chetan Sharma Consulting to lift the lid on the rapidly expanding global applications market.

The goal of the research study was to quantify the global mobile applications market by taking a holistic view from specific data in the market.

To build an effective framework for analysis, Chetan Sharma Consulting built a grounds-up model that took into account how the overall applications consumption is evolving across all dimensions—on-deck (offered on carrier deck), off-deck (outside the carrier deck or offering though they still might play a role like in billing or marketing), smartphones, feature phones, paid, free, advertising-based and virtual-goods-based.

The model focused on applications consumption by five major regions: North America, Europe, South America, Asia, and Middle East and Africa.

The aim of the project was to analyze the potential and real value of the mobile applications market worldwide using first-hand data.

Global apps economies
Applications economies are evolving differently worldwide, suggesting a need for greater focus on developing different applications business models, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach.

For instance, the average application selling price (ASP) in North America was $1.09, significantly higher compared to ASPs in developing markets such as South America ($0.20) and Asia ($0.10).

At the same time, post 2012, application downloads in developing regions such as Asia may eventually exceed those in Western regions, although monetisation of these downloads will require different business models—advertising, virtual currency—than those seen in developed markets.

The revenue opportunities in Europe are set to soar from $1.5 billion in 2009 to $8.5 billion in 2012, while in North America the figure will rise from around $2.1 billion to around $6.7 billion in 2012.

Currently applications are most popular in Asia, with the region accounting for 37 percent of global downloads in 2009.

However, while Asia had the highest number of downloads, users in North America spent the most money on applications, accounting for more than 50 percent of revenue.

Other findings from the research
Advertising based revenue models have become increasingly popular.

In 2009, advertising contributed almost 12 percent of the overall applications revenue.

However, this share is expected to more than double to over 28 percent by 2012 given the high proportion of prepay users in developing markets.

The battle of the application stores is well underway. In 2009 the number of app stores leapt from eight to 38, an increase of 375 percent. The number of application stores is expected to further increase in 2010.

The price of mobile applications can vary from $0.99 to $999—however, the average selling price in 2009 was approximately $1.90.

This is predicted to decrease by 29 percent over the next three years, although advertising revenue derived from applications is likely to stay relatively flat.

With the consumer appetite for mobile applications skyrocketing, the opportunities for developers are huge.

This report signifies a battle for survival of the fittest among app stores worldwide, with applications revenue and growth opportunities growing significantly, according to GetJar.

There is no way that this many app stores will survive in the long term and while the value of the global applications economy is set to be astoundingly high by 2012, only a few app stores will share this revenue.

The applications ecosystem is adjusting across multiple dimensions and thus expanding the revenue opportunities.

The growth in the quality of mobile advertising is also opening up new revenue streams for developers.

As the number of active data subscribers grows, we will continue to see the proliferation of applications in many directions on different device types.

Source : Read the Full Report at Mobile Marketer

The goal of the 24 operators is to unite a “fragmented marketplace” and give developers of applications a single route to users of different devices and operating systems, the group announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

This will build a new, open ecosystem to spur the creation of applications that can be used regardless of device, operating system or operator.This is tremendously exciting news for our industry and will serve to catalyse the development of a range of innovative cross-device, cross-operator applications

The group, which includes AT&T, Vodafone and China Mobile, has three billion customers around the world.

Application stores are a key component of smartphones, but purchasers of a particular smartphone like those sold by Finnish wireless equipment maker Nokia and Apple cannot access stores provided by other makers.

In a sign of the popularity of such services, South Korean mobile phone giant Samsung announced Sunday it would expand its app store to more than 50 countries this year after launching it in three European nations in 2009.

Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson announced Monday that it was launching its own online store, open to all types of devices. The eStore already counts 30,000 applications.

The alliance launched by the 24 operators, named the Wholesale Applications Community, is backed by the GSMA, the industry group that organises the congress, and device manufacturers LG Electronics, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

The other partners in the project include Orange of France, Deutsche Telekom of Germany and NTT Docomo of Japan.

Source: ABSCBN News

Cartoon Network will be offering the mobile comics with the telecom operators Airtel, Idea, Reliance Mobile and Tata Docomo. The comics can be downloaded for Rs 1 per day, Rs 10 per week and Rs 30 per month depending on their operator. Nazara Technologies will be handling the management and distribution.

According to a study conducted by Cartoon Network, 63% of kids today make use of mobile phones at least once a week. Observing this, the channel has taken the mobile route to reach its ultimate audience.

Along with the comic application, Cartoon Network would also provide videos, themes, colour logos wallpaper, animation, and greetings on its popular characters. Additionally, the channel is also looking to introduce a customised java application next year to download an entire comic in one go.

Source : Media Mughals

Users tell Xiam/TNS they would increase time spent each week accessing mobile content by over an hour (a 55 percent jump) and monthly spending by $8 (a 148 percent increase) if their content was personalized. Weather is the type of content most commonly accessed via mobile device, with 67 percent of subscribers now embracing weather-related apps and services followed by maps (55 percent), social networking (52 percent) and games (also 52 percent).

Have a look at some graphical representation below :

Users reporting problems accessing data

Across the board, some 80 percent of all users report some type of problem accessing or using data and websites on their mobile phones.

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Slow or hard to find information

The biggest culprit is slow or hard to find information. In all cases, more than 61 percent of users reported this issue.

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Phone or interface issues

Phone or interface issues rank second for users. Well over half reported problems.

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Irrelevant content

Of lesser importance, but still an issue to users, was receiving irrelevant content when trying to access or purchase content.

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Payment issues

In the United States, more than one in 10 users reported payment and billing issues as problem areas. It was only slightly worse in the United Kingdom, where 13 percent of users cited it as an issue.

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Effectiveness of methods for finding content

Users found that going to favorites or bookmarks were the most effective ways to navigate when searching for content. URLs, search engines and desktop icons followed as favorites, in that order.

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Least effective methods of finding mobile content

Consumers said they are least favorite way to find the mobile content they want actually is by clicking on ads or banners at their wireless service provider’s store or portal. They were nearly as dissatisfied with their handset manufacturers store or portal.

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Percent of attempts to access or purchase mobile content that are unsuccessful

In what should be worrisome to content providers, users say they are unsuccessful in accessing the mobile content they want 27 percent of the time. In the U.S., that number falls to 24 percent of the time.

This is where Alabot’s AI/NLP based engine helps in content access and discovery for both operators and content aggregators and portals. To know more about how Alabot can make this happen you can write to me at sidhartha.bezbora at alabot dot com

Source : Fierce Mobile and Metrics

The free application lets consumers search for step-by-step cleaning instructions from the experts at Tide and other iPhone users to get answers before stains have a chance to set in. For those iPhone users who have a secret recipe for removing tough stains, Tide Stain Brain lets them instantly share their own tips and tricks within the application.

Source : Stain Brain

Siliconindia is organizing a Mobile Application Conference (MAC) on October 31, 2009 in Bangalore. The Conference will explore the new opportunities that are emerging and ask the larger questions of the industry leaders within mobile, shedding some light on where the industry is headed and how entrepreneurs and developers can take advantage.

The mobile app market is thriving. Hundreds of handsets are capable of installing and running apps, and a slew of big-name app stores are striving to compete. It is expected that the market for mobile applications will be “as big as the internet”, peaking at 10 million apps in 2020. The excitement around mobile applications is going to have a major impact on our economy, and our way of life.

In the backdrop of this, siliconindia is organizing this full-day event, where some of the brightest minds in mobile technology will discuss the future of mobile technology. There is a line up of interesting panels like Mobile applications explode; Who wins and who loses?; Beyond Ringtones; Paid vs Free Apps – How to grow your app into a real business; Mobile Marketing.

Over 800 of the most interesting mobile developers, investors, executives, entrepreneurs, marketers, carriers, content developers and aggregators, and advertisers are expected to attend this conference-cum-expo. Attendees can look forward to in-depth discussion, debate and power networking.

Several companies developing mobile applications like Wirkle, ObjectSol Technologies mobikwik, iPath Technologies, Symbioum Technologies and many more will showcase some of the coolest apps they have developed for various platforms. Navteq is one of the sponsoring companies.

The event is FREE to attend. Register yourself at
http://www.siliconindia.com/mobileconference/register.php

WHEN: October 31, 2009 (Saturday)
TIME: 9 AM to 6 PM
WHERE: NIMHANS Convention Center, Near Diary Circle, Bangalore