Mobile adult entertainment generated $400 million in revenue last year, and could reach $1 billion, despite not exactly being the big killer among coming applications, according to a new report from international research and consulting firm Strategy Analytics.
The report also says the mobile porn market has a tough road ahead if it wants to overcome the fixed Web porn market.
"Despite positive drivers, which include greater availability of multimedia capable handsets, increased participation by established adult companies, such as Private Media and Playboy, the introduction of off-net portals and the implementation of content certification and age verification systems," Strategy Analytics said announcing the report's March 16 publication, "(we conclude) that mobile porn will remain a small market given the availability of superior user experience on the fixed Web."
Strategy Analytics senior analyst Nitesh Patel warned that adult content is not a "killer application in waiting" for the mobile market.
"With so much free pornography available on the fixed Internet, and mobility conferring only limited advantages to adult content," Patel said in a statement, "we believe that demand for adult material will continue to be largely met by fixed Internet services…Playboy and Private Media Group will no doubt extend wireless connectivity as an option for paying customers, but even among this group we anticipate that mobile usage will be low."
That didn't stop Strategy Analytics from upgrading its revenue outlook for mobile adult from $1 billion by 2008 to $5 billion by 2010, according to vice president for global wireless practice David Kerr. "This follows stronger-than-anticipated evidence of consumer demand," he said, "and carrier implementation of strategies that lay a stronger foundation for future service growth."
