NEW YORK - In an article that calls tiny mobile phone screens "the next frontier for erotica," Reuters stated that if the adult industry has its way, Americans will enjoy choices of free porn on their cell phones.
Europe is outpacing North America on the adult mobile frontier, as the U.S. tries to create and implement ways to protect children from viewing adult content. However, it is said that phone companies plan to loosen their grip on their networks in order to permit an increased variety of gadgets and services, while featuring new tools that will protect minors.
"It will be impossible to stop the adult business exploitation of mobile entertainment," said Gregory Piccionelli, a lawyer specializing in adult entertainment.
The trend is being helped by the addition of phones with higher picture and video quality. Piccionelli said the iPhone, 10 million of which are expected to have been sold by the end of 2008, is ideal for viewing porn because of its graphics and Web browser that mimics computer browsers. Most phones have stripped-down browsers.
Piccionelli also predicted that U.S. consumers soon might be offered free porn on mobile phones alongside paid services like live video or "adult dates," prearranged sex with strangers.
A Miami conference this week is devoted to discussing mobile opportunities, while the porn industry searches for a new driver of growth.
An overabundance of free porn websites has cut into profits that so far have come mainly from DVDs, videotapes and pay-per-view or subscription-based sites.
Jay Grdina, president of adult entertainment provider ClubJenna Inc., advises adult entertainers to stay on top of phone trends.
Grdina predicted that carriers will find a way to protect kids from adult content within a year at the seminar, "Industry Greats Host Internext Future Vision Panel," at the AVN Internext '08 conference in Las Vegas this month.
"If you don't evolve, you're going to die. We need to make sure we're ready," he also said in an interview before his keynote speech at this week's Mobile Adult Content Congress, where adult entertainment and technology companies are brainstorming how to make mobile porn a viable business.
Popular video-sharing site YouTube.com's plan to expand to about 100 million advanced cell phones may help the cause, even if it means some ClubJenna content - which includes everything from glamour photographs of scantily clad models to hardcore videos - is seen for free on phones.
"It's a double-edged sword," Grdina said. "On the one hand, it's giving away content. ... On the other hand, it's expanding the brand."
Grdina said ClubJenna needs a boost in the U.S. market, where it generates "pretty much zero" mobile revenue, compared with "very healthy" revenue in Europe.
While he has had trouble winning deals with U.S. phone operators, Grdina hopes for a deal within 18 months to sell non-nude photographs of bikini-clad models.
Pornography has made inroads on cell phones in Europe, where it was a $775 million industry in 2007 and is expected to grow to $1.5 billion by 2012, with the global market reaching $3.5 billion in 2010, according to Britain-based Juniper Research.
In comparison, North America generated just $26 million in 2007, as carriers shied away from porn sales. Canada's second-largest phone company, Telus Corp., for example, withdrew a mobile porn service in 2007 after complaints from hundreds of customers and criticism from the Catholic Church.
Mobile porn will be more prevalent around 2009, when there will be more phones that can show high-quality graphics, explained Michael King, a telecommunications analyst at Gartner.
Porn is "one of the bigger pieces of Web revenue," he said. "You would assume the natural extension would be on mobile."
The key to the development of mobile porn may be carriers' willingness to open their networks to more content. Even if they don't sell porn, they would benefit from additional fees paid by consumers if mobile Web surfing increases.
Verizon Wireless, the second-largest U.S. mobile service, promised this year to let customers use any device or software that can work on its network.
Sprint Nextel Corp. said it will support a wide array of gadgets for a fast wireless Web service it will kick off in 2008. Company spokesman John Polivka said customers of the service would be able to view anything they like. Sprint also will provide Web filters to help keep minors from viewing adult sites.
NeuStar sells an age-verification system for which it aims to have both a U.S. carrier client and a content customer within six months.
"2008 is when the first people are going to be sticking their toes in the water," said John Ticer, a NeuStar marketing executive.
Piccionelli said mobile porn will always face uncertainties, such as a possible privacy backlash against age-verification systems, because consumers will have to give personal details.
"However, that does not mean that uncertainty will prohibit enormous profits from being made in this business," he said.
