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Mobile Imaging Application Market to Exceed $500 Million by 2013
U.S. consumers will spend more than $500 million in 2013 for imaging applications on their mobile phones, according to international research firm Parks Associates, which sees this market expanding beyond photo-sharing services to personalized content management and social networking applications.
Parks Associates' newest report finds consumers will use their camera-equipped mobile phones for a variety of applications over the next few years and they are willing to pay for enhancements such as photo-editing capabilities, comparison shopping, and social networking services.
The mobile application market will benefit from improved hardware. By 2013, almost 70% of handsets sold in the U.S. will include a camera of at least two megapixels.
In addition, dramatic changes are taking place in application development and marketing. "Recent trends, including the launch of Google's Android MarketPlace and Apple's success with the App Store, have revived interest in the camera phone platform among carriers, handset makers, and application developers," said Harry Wang, Director, Health and Mobile Product Research, Parks Associates.
Wang said that new revenue models, such as application a la carte purchasing and software as a service, will become the major monetization approaches, overtaking once-dominant mobile printing services. "Handset makers and mobile carriers will need to embrace a more consumer-centric business model in application development and marketing. Consumers want to do more with their phones, which makes this area fertile for service innovation."
Posted to the site on 13th January 2009