Mobile entertainment content to Skyrocket.

In a new report, Juniper Research has estimated that the total global mobile entertainment market (including gambling, adult content, mobile games, mobile music, mobile TV and infotainment) will be worth $17.3 billion in 2006 and rise to $76.9 billion by 2011.

With over two billion mobile phone subscribers worldwide and an increasing number of them upgrading to 2.5G and 3G phones, mobile content is one area of certain growth. Juniper Research suggests that mobile music currently makes up the largest proportion of the mobile entertainment content area, with ringtone downloads making up 80% of mobile music revenues. However, by 2011, the UK-based research firm believes that revenues generated from mobile games and mobile TV will exceed mobile music revenues. Furthermore, despite the recent legal restrictions in the US on Internet gambling, mobile gambling is expected to be a sure bet in Asia and Europe and will also exceed revenues from mobile music, according to Juniper.

Currently, North America makes up only 14% (approximately $2.4 billion) of the total global market for mobile entertainment content. Asia-Pacific is the dominant region worldwide for mobile content, followed by Europe, but North America will begin to take an increasing global share of revenues in the next five years, according to Juniper data.

The mobile phone has quickly moved beyond being just a convenient communication device. For many people, carrying a mobile phone means being connected to a wider community, and the device has become the very linchpin of one’s social life. The entanglement of humans and electronic devices will only become deeper in the years ahead, and the mobile phone will be at the forefront of that process.

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