IDC forecasts the number of worldwide wireless subscribers and customers to grow by a little more than a billion over the next four years, generating $800 billion in global wireless service revenue by 2011. IDC expects mobile entertainment will account for 5.1% of this total revenue and 23% of all mobile data revenue. The vast majority of this mobile entertainment revenue will be derived from ringtones, ringback tones, and mobile television and video services.
Although there are significant regional differences, worldwide revenue and subscriber and customer totals are poised to increase at least 25% annually between 2006 and 2011. According to IDC, ringback tones will overtake ringtones in 2010 and become the single largest revenue source for mobile entertainment due to a variety of inherent advantages.
The IDC study, Worldwide Mobile Entertainment 2007-20011 Forecast (Doc #210103), analyzes the opportunity for mobile entertainment services, applications, and content types on a global basis. Mobile entertainment in the context of this study is defined as ringtones, games, commercial TV and video services, full-track music downloads, ringback tones, and graphics/themes. This study provides a regional breakdown of associated revenue and average revenue per user (ARPU), customers/subscribers, and, in some cases, volume/units for comparative purposes; describes critical associated trends; and forecasts each of these content/service types through 2011. The four major regions covered are Asia/Pacific, North America, Western Europe, and the rest of the world (ROW).
Originally posted on March 4, 2008 @ 10:50 pm