Mobile Insights Market Numbers
Keep up with the latest mobile content trends and Innovations. See how Motricity is redefining mobile marketplace management.
This mobile content space is quickly evolving and ever dynamic. Motricity shares insight from its renowned executives and leading analysts on the latest developments and forecast in the mobile content industry.
Our analysts share some of their insights into the current mobile content trends.
2005 Revenues - $1.3 billion, Downloads - 575 million, and Users - 31 million.
Games, ringtones and graphics: Just three of several ways to personalize and entertain on your cell phone. Today mobile content downloaded to your cell phone has turned into a multibillion dollar industry. In the U.S. alone, mobile content downloads more than doubled market during 2005. Over 31 million users purchased 575 million downloads valued at $1.3 billion.
Voice ARPU continues to decline while a dramatic rise occurs in premium mobile content.
Voice ARPU continues its steady decline at 3 percent per year, while data revenues march upward with premium content growing by 76 percent in 2005. Momentum driven by carrier competition coupled with an expanding prepaid market will continue to erode voice ARPU in the foreseeable future. And beginning next year, subscribers growth will no longer compensate for ARPU decline. Fortunately for carriers, increased data revenues, driven in part by premium content, should rise enough to offset voice ARPU decline.
Sales mix of downloadable content 55 percent, 29 percent, 15 percent, 1 percent.
Of the $1.3 billion in download revenues a majority (55 percent) comes from mobile music with ringtones accounting for 41%. The face of ringtones, however, has dramatically shifted from mostly polyphonics in 2004 to over 70 percent master tones in 2005. Games, 29 percent of 2005 revenues rose dramatically in 2005 and will continue to climb in 2006. Graphics follow with 15 percent share, followed by video entertainment at 1 percent.
Off-net vs On-net 21 percent vs 79 percent.
Downloadable content purchased on the carriers' storefronts declined from virtually 100 percent in 2004 to 79 percent in 2005. The dramatic rise in off-portal purchases, primarily in ringtones, occurred in the first half of 2005 and slowed during the back half the year. We expect the off portal trend to regain momentum during 2006.