The global trade body of mobile media, the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), sees some clear mobile trends emerging in 2010, including the increasing demand for multiplatform delivery, more data heavy services, micro-payments for content, operator enabled services and rather a lot more.
Chairing an all-day event on day one of this year’s CommunicAsia in Singapore, Colin Miles, an MEF Asia Board Member as well as VP and co-founder of i-POP Networks, noted that fragmentation – both of software and hardware – was an ever growing “challenge” for the industry and one which had to be addressed soon. “Things have to be made easier,” said Miles, adding that this held especially true when it came to app stores.
Google’s Android platform, said Miles, would go some way to closing the gap in terms of fragmentation, but there are still many challenges ahead and issues the industry needs to address.
Not just fragmentation, but also the “complexity, confusion and ambiguity,” in the application of rights to the mobile platform, will also have to be addressed this year, said Miles.
On the operator side of things, Miles believes operator enabled services will start to be widely deployed, something which should facilitate the growth of rich media on mobiles, making it simpler, faster and giving a better user experience.
Speaking of content, Miles also reckons media publishers could get a lucrative piece of the trendy mobile pie by experimenting with things like micropayments and subscription service models which could even challenge the operators’ dominance – a la Rupert Murdoch.
Books are also on the mobile up-and-up, with Miles predicting they will emerge as a new and popular content category for smartphones. “Books are being re-invented beautifully,” he added.
Unfortunately for operators, it’s not just books people want on their phones, but videos, games and music streaming, all of which puts significant strain on the crumbling old networks. The MEF believes this will result in data tariffs increasingly becoming subjected to ever more stringent download limits, something which won’t go down well with either consumers or content providers.
What might sweeten the bitter pill, however, is the fact that according to the MEF, 2010 will definitely be the year of multiplatform dual delivery of content, including music, video and games across not only mobile phones but also TVs and PCs.
