I am reading an excerpt from Tomi Ahonen‘s December report on mobile, the 7th Mass Media – and boy the numbers are big. As a quick highlight he has total mobile content in 2008 at $71bn – and yes, you read that right 
.
Within that mobile music, gaming, television/video and social networking are all around the $10bn mark.
These are the biggest numbers I’ve seen for this market, by far.
New blog entry: Mobile content is BIG business http://tinyurl.com/7mmqap
This isn't new though – end user spending on mobile has been far larger than for PC/ online services since the early 2000s. The problem has been that a lot of this was ringtones – which was easily a £500m +market in the UK at one point but has been in decline with nothing really replacing it as a growth driver. Sonera Zed did $545m in revenue in 2007, Buongiorno is doing ~euro 400m+ a year…
Thanks James – I agree that the truth is a bit less than the headlines imply. They are still big numbers though.
not arguing with the size of the numbers at all – that's my point – they have been big for ages! A lot of new money is coming into mobile now – mobile casino taking off, mobile advertising getting critical mass, mobile virtual goods emerging as a new biz model – the big kicker will be if mcommerce stats to move onto mobile e.g. high value purchases like travel, financial products etc.
I have a basic rule with any estimate for Mobile numbers – divide by 2 for every year the forecast goes out by
not arguing with the size of the numbers at all – that's my point – they have been big for ages! A lot of new money is coming into mobile now – mobile casino taking off, mobile advertising getting critical mass, mobile virtual goods emerging as a new biz model – the big kicker will be if mcommerce stats to move onto mobile e.g. high value purchases like travel, financial products etc.
I have a basic rule with any estimate for Mobile numbers – divide by 2 for every year the forecast goes out by