Roughly 29% of US broadband users watch video on a mobile phone monthly, with the average user watching 1.7 hours of video on a mobile phone each week, according to Parks Associates.
Since 2008, revenues from voice services for the top-four US mobile network operators (MNOs) have declined 6%, while data revenues have grown 129%,” said Harry Wang, director, Health & Mobile Product Research, Parks Associates.
“Mobile data revenues will be key to offsetting stagnant growth in voice revenues. Most major MNOs worldwide are transitioning or have already adopted tiered or shared usage-based data plans, and they will continue to experiment with pricing models to optimize the revenue-generation potential of mobile data access.”
Parks Associates’ mobile industry research report Optimization & Monetization Mobile Data Traffic shows MNOs face increasing competition from OTT players, particularly in the area of messaging and multimedia value-added services (VAS), and the revenues from these sources are steadily declining.
Analysts say MNOs will have to find ways of generating revenues, such as launching their own OTT services, partnering with OTT service providers, or bundling VAS services with data plans, to create value and differentiation from competitors.
Parks Associates mobile research also shows that the number of people in North America who watch mobile video and TV shows on mobile devices at least weekly will increase to 173 million by 2017.
Smartphone ownership in North America will top 300 million by year-end 2016. US tablet owners are 1.3 times more likely than smartphone owners to purchase a product using a shopping app. Within a 30-day period, almost 20% of US smartphone users and 27% of US tablet owners make in-app purchases.
