A new report from Juniper Research has valued the mobile entertainment market at $33bn (£20bn) for last year, rising to $54bn in 2015, driven by the continuing escalation in smartphone adoption, and the attendant increase in downloads of consumer-oriented applications.

The report, Mobile Entertainment Strategies: Markets, Opportunities & Forecasts 2011-2015, notes that the combination of app stores and smartphones has created an unprecendented level of awareness and usage of services such as social media, games, video and streamed music. At the same time, the transition from the ‘walled garden’ business model to an open mobile internet has created greater opportunities for D2C players in niche areas, such as gambling and adult services.

In addition, the report points out that the rise in consumer adoption of rich media content has prompted unprecedented interest in mobile channels from major brands, which are allocating increasing proportions of digital budget to mobile. As a result, content providers, in particular, are benefitting from the additional revenue stream created through in-app advertising.

“Weve witnessed a quite dramatic evolution of the mobile entertainment market over the past few years, in terms of type of content, scale of content, and how that content is monetised,” says report author, Dr. Windsor Holden. “The challenge for the players across the redefined mobile ecosystem is to recognise how best to leverage their strengths to ensure that their respective revenue streams are optimised.”

Other key findings from the report include:

• Despite the erosion of the ringtone market, mobile music will remain the largest single contributor to mobile entertainment content revenues over the next five years.
• The fastest growing product sector will be mobile gambling, followed by social media.
• On a regional basis, the Far East & China will continue to account for the largest share of revenues, followed by Western Europe.

The mobile entertainment whitepaper is available to download from the Juniper website, together with further details of the study.