The industry hosts
a myriad of acronyms and technical terms and there are almost
as many platforms available for delivering content as there
are types of content itself. Using a back-to-basics style,
this handbook attempts to understand the various types of
content services that are available and the processes, technologies
and business models used to create, deliver and bill the end
user for this content.
This handbook is divided into three chapters. The first chapter
provides an overview of various mobile content services and
highlights the present and future market size and growth for
these services.
The second chapter elaborates on the activities involved in
creating and delivering content over mobile networks, starting
with an overview of the activities involved in delivering
mobile content services and then delving into each of the
activities by identifying the processes and technologies used
to carry out the activities.
The final chapter explores the various business models operational
in the industry, and studies some of the key players involved
in the industry and their activities.
With the evolution of mobile networking technologies and
handset design, mobile services are no longer a simple means
of ‘anywhere’ communication. Mobile services are
increasingly being used by subscribers to fulfill their information
and entertainment needs, and for business workers the mobile
handset is fast becoming an invaluable extension of their
office environment. The current market for mobile services
can easily be classified into two categories – voice
services and data services.
Among the two types of mobile services, voice services continue
to provide the greatest proportion of overall service revenues
for mobile network operators. However, in some of the saturated
and mature mobile markets of the world, voice services are
increasingly becoming commoditised, under intense pricing
pressure, resulting in decreasing revenue growth for mobile
service providers. Under such a scenario, service providers
are constantly developing new non-voice data services, which
offer scope for a large number of mobile applications and
value-added services. The major types of data services are
discussed and explained in this convenient handbook.
Data services can be broadly split into three categories -
including communications services, such as text messaging,
etc, and access services, such as online time searching for
content or online connection to company servers, and finally
content services, such as ringtones, games and other downloads.
Content services is the largest category of offerings, such
as music (including ring tones), games, videos, images, wallpapers,
news and infotainment, etc. These services are primarily designed
to entertain subscribers during their leisure time and many
such services enjoy high levels of acceptability, especially
ringtones and games, to mention two of the most popular services.
Novelty, pricing and matching consumer’s tastes and
preferences are the key challenges for mobile service providers
and other content providers in this sector.
The worldwide market for mobile content services was estimated
to be worth USD 17.6 billion in 2005. The introduction of
advanced mobile handsets and faster 3G technologies is expected
to increase the market for mobile content services to USD
59 billion by 2009. While the market share of ringtones is
expected to decrease from 31 percent in 2005 to about 8 percent
in 2009, mobile gambling and games are predicted to emerge
as the key drivers of the growth of mobile content services
in the coming years.
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