Customers go wide for mobile content

Mobile customers use a mixture of carrier-offered content, Web-based content and personal content, according to a survey conducted by ABI Research.
The firm noted customers are more likely to watch a video on YouTube on their phone, but are more than twice as likely to get ringtones from their carrier than from other sources.
“Perhaps more with the mobile phone than any other consumer electronics device, content is obtained from a variety of sources,” said Michael Wolf, research director at ABI. “This shows that despite the strong control most carriers retain over the network, their control over the mobile content ecosystem remains limited. The consumer will see more and more options for obtaining rich media in the future.”
According to the survey, 14% of respondents say they use their phone to watch video, and of those the split is about even among those who watch Web-based videos, carrier video offerings and videos sideloaded onto their mobile device. Music consumption is also mixed, with most users sideloading music files onto their phone while about one-third purchase music through their carrier. Consumers who used mobile games, however, were most likely to only play games that were pre-loaded on their phone.
“As the mobile phone grows from being a voice-centric device to a multidimensional communication and entertainment device, content channels will continue to multiply,” adds Wolf. “We expect to see increased content acquisition directly to the phone from the Web.”