MEF releases its Top Ten Mobile Media Trends for 2010

The year 2009 was a turbulent one for the global economy. However, the mobile industry has weathered the storm remarkably well, as MEF’s quarterly Business Confidence Index (BCI) has shown. In the last BCI, the global mobile media industry predicted growth of 33% in the next year; although MEF believes that the industry has the potential to beat this projection.

This time last year, MEF made a number of predictions that came to fruition in 2009. It predicted that mobile applications would emerge as a content category in their own right and with more than 24 application stores now launched and several billion apps downloaded this has clearly been realised. MEF also predicted the proliferation of touch screen devices would drive discoverability and content usage which is self-evident with seemingly every OEM producing a touch-screen device and strong consumer demand for the interactive functionality this interface provides.

Such a creative and richly diverse industry will continue to deliver new and exciting challenges and opportunities. With MEF’s previous success in anticipating, defining and addressing these key issues, we share here our forecast of top trends in mobile media for 2010.

MEF’s Top 10 Mobile Media Trends for 2010

1. Fragmentation and variance amongst handsets and now application stores will continue to plague the industry, however the growth of applications on the Android platform will close the gap on Apple’s App Store
2. Operator enabling services will start to be widely deployed, facilitating the growth of rich media content that is simpler, faster and offers a better user experience
3. Media publishers will start to experiment with micro-payments, subscription service models and alternative payment methods which challenge the operators’ dominance, with Rupert Murdoch’s decision to charge for online media content highlighting an already fierce debate
4. Books will emerge as a new and popular content category for smartphones
5. Technology innovation will continue, with content developers experimenting with 3D mobile video viewers and augmented reality for mobile
6. The emerging risk of illicit charging by in-app billing will be met by firm regulatory action
7. Significant tightening of premium rate regulation in the Atlantic region will spread across the world
8. 2010 will be the year of multiplatform dual-delivery of content including music, video and games, across mobile phones, TVs and PCs
9. The growing consumer demand for data-heavy services will put greater pressure on networks, with flat rate data tariffs increasingly subjected to stringent download limits
10. Complexity, confusion and ambiguity in the application of rights to the mobile platform will be addressed seriously in 2010

Inventors of Java on Mobile receive Meffys Outstanding Contribution Award

MEF has awarded this year’s prestigious Meffys Outstanding Contribution award to Dr Antero Taivalsaari, Principal Investigator, Sun Microsystems Laboratories and Mark VandenBrink, Motorola Fellow & VP, the duo who laid the foundations for today’s thriving mobile applications business.

The winners were announced as part of the sold-out Meffys Gala Awards dinner held in London last night. The Outstanding Contribution award acknowledges the industry’s unsung heroes whose achievements have made a significant impact on today’s US$32 billion mobile entertainment industry.

Mobile applications have been the success story of the year. The critical contribution in developing the mobile version of Java paved the way for mobile application developers to create the first generation of downloadable content. The creation of Java for mobile devices was a huge achievement, combining a technology breakthrough with an ambitious vision and, perhaps most challenging of all, winning the support of the entire industry.

In 1997, Dr Antero Taivalsaari joined Sun Labs and within the space of a year had developed the foundation for J2ME, the technology bedrock of the applications business. He subsequently met with Mark VandenBrink of Motorola, who was so captivated by the potential of this technology for mobile devices that he drove its industry adoption. Mark persuaded Motorola to commit to Java and Sun to license it, and subsequently persuaded 26 other handset manufacturers, including Nokia and Ericsson, to commit to Java and to agree on the standardisation of the Java mobile device user profile.

Over the past decade, more than 2.5 billion handsets have been shipped with Java support, under every brand and in every region of the world.

Andrew Bud, the newly re-elected Global Chair of MEF, commented: “On the tenth anniversary of Java on mobile, I am delighted that we have recognised the men who founded this multi-billion dollar revolution, of which today’s Apps Stores are the heirs. Dr. Antero Taivalsaari of Sun, as inventor of the KVM and creator of J2ME, and Mark VandenBrink of Motorola, as the successful prophet of an idea and creator of MIDP, are worthy recipients of this year’s Meffys Outstanding Contribution Award.”

Antero attended the awards and acknowledged the team members who had helped make Java on mobile a reality:“Working in Silicon Valley to develop the J2ME platform was one of the most exciting periods of my professional career. Right from the start, there were so many talented people involved in this project, including Mark. The success of the technology has surpassed all our original expectations, and I am both humbled and proud of the contribution that it has made to the industry.”

Mark, who was not able to attend in person, said: “Back in the late 1990s, when Antero and I first met, we had no idea that a chance meeting over lunch in Cupertino would result in the first cross-platform application environment in the mobile industry. Ten years later, what once invoked incredulity is considered commonplace - now mobile phones are selected, at least in part, by their ability to run applications and to host content. I would like to thank the MEF Board for this award and to say that tonight, I am doubly honoured: not only to have been recognised as a global thought leader and pioneer, but also to have been associated with Antero for these last ten years. Thank you!”

Previous winners of the Outstanding Contribution Award:

2008: Greg Clayman, Gordon Gould and Alex LeVine - founders of ‘Upoc’ for the creation of the first mobile communities
2007: Alain Rossman, Chuck Parrish and Bruce Martin – the founders of WAP
2006: Dr Jim Brailean – Pioneer of mobile video
2005: Taneli Armanto – Put the game ‘snake’ on the mobile phone
2004: Vesa Matti Paananen – Inventor of the ringtones business model

Mobile entertainment industry confident despite economic crisis

The findings of the latest MEF Business Confidence Index (BCI) on the $32bn global mobile entertainment industry has shown that the industry remains confident despite the current economic challenges, predicting average revenue growth of 28% for the coming year. The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) BCI is compiled by KPMG.

Commenting on the findings, Andrew Bud, Global Chair of MEF, said: “A vital part of MEF’s mission is to provide insight in to the market and the BCI is a uniquely valuable tool to do so. This second release begins to reveal the trends in the industry and confirms its optimism about the future.

“In spite of an incredibly difficult economic landscape, the prediction for average revenue growth in the mobile content sector is up 1% on the annual growth prediction from the last BCI to 28%. This echoes the finding that 81% of respondents are as confident about the future of their organisation as they were at the end of last year.”

Rimma Perelmuter, Executive Director at MEF, comments: “The mobile entertainment industry is relatively stable due to proven business models, with more than 50% of total revenue generated from consumer purchased content. Social networking looks set to be the biggest area for growth; followed by games and video; music and ‘infotainment’. It is encouraging to see an optimistic outlook throughout the mobile entertainment value chain, despite uncertainties around forecasting and budgeting.”

The analysis also shows that the ‘marketing mix’ of communication channels within the industry is evolving.

Mark Harding, Director of Digital Content at KPMG, added: “The revenue growth and confidence shown by the sector proves that, despite tougher economic times, consumers are still prepared to spend money on mobile content. The coming of age of the smart phone has no doubt helped to support this, by improving the customer experience and access to exciting mobile applications.

“More organisations in the mobile entertainment value chain are moving their marketing budget towards the industry’s own platform of mobile, at the expense of online and sponsorship and events. However, the mobile entertainment industry’s marketing budgets remained constant over the last quarter and are predicted to remain so over the next, with 87% predicting their marketing budget will remain the same or increase.”

Judging the Meffys

This post is written by Rimma Perelmuter, Executive Director of MEF. To find out more about the Meffys and to book your seat at the event, please go to the offical website at http://www.m-e-f.org/meffys/


For the 6th year running, MEF hosted a marathon 3 days live judging session, bringing together 43 international press and analysts to demystify, debate and ultimately deliver 2009’s shortlist of lead industry innovators and trendsetters.

Things sure have come a long way since the days when MEF first introduced 3 categories for Music, Games and Innovation and recognised the ‘founder of the ringtone’ at the 2004 inaugural Meffys in London. With a whopping 15 categories, 180 applications and more than 40 countries represented, the Meffys have become the industry’s benchmark for recognising success and innovation.

I had the privilege and undeniable fun of chairing the judging sessions with MEF’s Kim Arazi, who manages the Meffys and picked up some useful trends worth sharing:

• A proliferation of new off-portal business models has morphed the definition of what constitutes a ‘D2C’ player. With social networking companies, apps-inspired vendors and brands developing new ways of appealing directly to the consumer, D2C is going main stream and no longer just the domain of the aggregator.

• ‘Mobile First’ markets in which mobile has overtaken internet penetration continue to drive innovation and fuel growth with a range of simple and practical solutions for overcoming economic, technological and commercial barriers and driving mass adoption. If you want to see what drives social innovation and revenue, this is the one to watch.

• 2009’s successful mobile ad campaigns are less about the latest mobile technology and more about using mobile as the optimised medium for sharing content, achieving consumer engagement and ‘nudging’ the consumer to test and try new digital products. So simple yet so true.

• Who pays for the content delivery and discovery continue as universal themes with new models proposing ad-based, transparent data options and other payment solutions that shift the onus from the operator.

So what remains to be conquered?

• You won’t be surprised to hear that apps have transformed the market for mobile content discovery and adoption with their amazing range, targeting success and fun appeal. And yet, the apps movement has some way to go in terms of helping the average non iPhone consumer partake in the fun of it all. Democratising apps, monetising the freemium model and building a great user experience is surely the way forward.

• Business intelligence has certainly come a long way from the days of Excel spreadsheets and educating the operators on the benefits of sharing anonymised data. At the same time, the mobile media industry is still in the evolutionary stages of agreeing definitive metrics and measurement. And while the Meffys judges were impressed with the range of analytics which meet the needs of developers, brands and publishers for accurate data, sustained advertising investment will require a much accelerated and comprehensive approach.

To see what our judges thoughts click here and view the buzz on Twitter about the Meffys here.

Stay tuned for more revelations once winners are announced on June 23rd at the Meffys gala dinner in London and be sure to sign up to attend the gala dinner to meet the industry’s luminaries and glitterati.

We look forward to seeing you there!