Analysts: Ad-supported mobile games are on the way
According to analysts Screen Digest, advertising will account for more than 20 percent of all mobile TV revenues on a worldwide basis by 2012. So get ready for the ad-funded games, especially after mobile TV becomes universally available.
Four years from now, more than 60 million ad-funded mobile games will be downloaded each year worldwide, according to results of of a new survey by analyst group Screen Digest.
By 2012, the survey results show, mobile TV advertising will account for $2.44 billion annually, or the vast majority of the $2.79 billion to be spent per year on all "rich media advertising" on mobile phones.
However, the quantity of mobile TV advertising you'll see will depend a lot on where you live. Ad-funded mobile games and other mobile advertising will be much more prevalent in countries such as Japan and Korea, where mobile TV will be broadcast free of charge to consumers, than in North America and most of northern Europe, where mobile TV will be offered as paid subscriptions, according to Screen Digest analysts.
Also -- although the survey results don't make note of this -- Asian mobile networks such as Japan's NTT Docomo have already leapfrogged ahead of some sections of the world -- North America, in particular -- in terms of infrastructure technologies for supporting mobile video.
Wireless networks with enough bandwidth to support mobile TV -- such as 4G LTE infrastructures now eyed by Verizon Networks and AT&T -- aren't even expected to be up and running in North America until 2009 or 2010.
Source: betanews.com
