Market researcher In-Stat recently reported some results from a survey it conducted on the consumption of video by mobile-device users. According to the survey, nearly two-thirds of smartphone users have watched video on their device and close to 86 percent of tablet owners have. In-Stat points out these numbers indicate the potential demand for this quickly developing and evolving market. Additionally, the researcher says, these examples indicate a larger trend of strong growth in mobile video consumption worldwide. In-Stat has also produced a research report that forecasts the consumption rate will pas 693 billion minutes by 2015.
Amy Cravens, market analyst with In-Stat, noted that mobile video consumption will continue to grow as capable devices (smartphones and tablets) proliferate - and as content restrictions are liberalized. "However," she said, "it is important to note that the consumption differs significantly between smartphones, tablets and notebooks/netbooks. Differences include content length, content genre and content acquisition. Content providers need to customize their offerings by target platform." Among the findings in In-Stat's report are the following.
- The current significant gap between smartphone viewers and tablet viewers (favoring smartphone viewers) will narrow in the coming years.
- Tablet viewers watch more video and are willing to pay a higher price for it compared to smartphone viewers.
- The majority of video access occurs in stationary environments - frequently the home - particularly for tablet devices and in the consumption of long-form video.
- Content owners put up the biggest barriers to mobile video growth. Network-capacity issues represent the second-biggest barrier.
You may also be interested in this related article, WiFi offloading, cell-phone battery drain, and dual-band access, authored by Oberon Inc.'s Scott Thompson.
