Mobile entertainment services predicted to hit $75 billion by 2017

Global mobile and tablet entertainment revenues are expected to almost double by 2017, a market analyst has predicted.

Juniper Research expects annual revenues from mobile entertainment services to hit $75 billion (£45.6 billion) by 2017, nearly twice the estimated $39 billion (£23.7 billion) for 2013.

“This substantial growth is primarily driven by the emergence of more sophisticated monetisation strategies, allied to a nascent ecosystem of app-centric mobile devices, such as smart watches,” commented Juniper on the findings.

Games will continue to bring in the most money, with Juniper expecting ‘freemium’ models, where in-app purchases and other such services upsell content after an app is downloaded, to be the primary method of generating revenue.

Revenues are particularly expected to ‘spike’ during Christmas this year.

Sian Rowlands, author of the Juniper report ‘Mobile Entertainment: Leisure, Video, Music, Games, Adult & Gambling 2013-2018’, explained: “Christmas provides the biggest opportunity for mobile entertainment providers in terms of exposure.”

“Storefronts and D2C entertainment brands see a surge in activity on and immediately after Christmas Day as consumers browse and download apps for their new devices, and the recent launch of the iPad Air will undoubtedly exacerbate this.”

The smallest area for growth is expected to be the adult sector, where pirated and free content dilutes revenues. The largest share of revenue is forecasted to arrive from the Far East and China.

Image of man playing game on tablet courtesy of Shutterstock.co.uk