Mobile Video Business - Promises to Expand Rapidly

Consumers and business users alike have come to rely on mobile voice and data communications. Now demand is building for mobile video services as well. ABI Research believes that the move to all-digital TV will pave the way for mobile TV services that can “attract over 500 million viewers by 2013.” [ABI] Add to this the revenue of other mobile video services and applications, and the market potential grows even larger. Infonetics projects worldwide mobile video service revenue to increase at a 5-year CAGR of 130%, reaching $35 billion by 2011 [Infonetics].
Traditional carriers see mobile video as a way to reverse declining Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) caused by the decline in revenue from voice-only services. Others, including application and infrastructure developers, see it simply as a major new opportunity. Wainhouse Research expects worldwide revenues for personal mobile video communications — including professional services, software, toolkits, and other infrastructure products — to grow to a billion dollar industry by 2010 [Wainhouse]. Mobile Video Service Examples
Dozens of video services are already available on the internet, and these services are beginning to be offered on mobile handsets as well. The services fall into two broad categories: consumer-oriented and business-oriented. The two lists presented here provide just a sample of mobile video service possibilities – and revenue opportunities.

Consumer-oriented mobile video focuses on entertainment and social networking:

• Mobile TV • Video on Demand (VoD) • Video sharing with family and friends • Viral video sharing • Video blogging • Conversational video • Video portal • Video messaging • Video SMS • Multimedia ring-back tone • Mobile advertising • Social networking

Business-oriented mobile video services emphasize enhanced communications and collaboration:

• Interactive Voice and Video Response (IVVR) • Conversational video • Video sharing between a business and its customers • Video training • Video messaging and video SMS • Video conferencing

The market for mobile video services promises to expand rapidly over the next several years. To exploit this opportunity, application developers and service providers must move quickly, providing innovative new services with the quality, responsiveness, and price points that users find attractive. But mobile video is a complex medium, presenting developers with a variety of technical challenges.