Mobile video usage to top 693B minutes by 2015

According to the recent In-Stat research titled "Mobile Video on Tablets and Smartphones: IP Delivery Creates a New Battleground for Pay-TV Providers", mobile video usage will exceed 693 billion minutes by 2015.

Mobile video consumption is a rapidly developing market. Although many mobile video products have been launched only recently, providers are experiencing significant growth in usage rates. Almost two-thirds of smartphone owners have watched video on their device, while about 86 percent have done so in tablets, In-Stat said. These numbers indicate a potential market demand and suggest a larger trend of strong growth in global mobile video consumption.

"As content restrictions are liberalized and the proliferation of smartphone and tablet devices continues to expand, so too will mobile video consumption," said Amy Cravens, market analyst at In-Stat. "However, it is important to note that the consumption differs significantly between smartphones, tablets and notebook/netbooks. Differences include content length, content genre and content acquisition. Content providers need to customize their offerings by target platform."

The research also found that there are more who watch video on smartphones than tablets but the gap will narrow in coming years. Tablet viewers also watch more video and are willing to pay a higher price for the video compared to smartphone viewers. In-Stat observed that the majority of video access is occurring in a non-mobile environment—often in the home—particularly for tablet devices and in the consumption of long-form video. The market research company also noted that the largest barriers to mobile video growth are those put up by content owners, followed by network capacity issues.