The traditional music record industry has been experiencing sales decline in recent years. Traditional forms of media, such as newspapers and TV, are facing big challenges coming from the Internet. Presently, TV programs, electronic newspapers and music are all available on the latest mobile phone models. Moreover, the latest movies and songs can now be found on official and synchronous release channels online. The Long Tail Theory represents the newest challenge to the Pareto Principle (or the 80-20 Rule), and the iPhone has replaced the iPod to become the forerunner in the information and communication technology (ICT) field. Hence, all of these are indicators of the upcoming digitized content era.
So, what do contents mean to mobile operators? What will be the content development trends in the near future? How can one earn money from contents? Being the primary focus in all of the questions, contents have now become a vital weapon in a new round of competition.
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The mobile terminal is an important factor that influences mobile contents. Eight or nine years ago, the typical mobile phone was a basic black-and-white handset, providing only voice communications and text message services. Four or five years ago, color-display mobile phones appeared on the market, and had such functions as WAP browse, multimedia messaging service (MMS) and Java application. At present, mobile phones cover a wide range of diverse models and offer customers a rich variety of functions such as HTTP browse, photo-taking, music, streaming media, and large memory storage capacity.
Mobile terminals have been experiencing substantial changes every five years or so, and have gradually changed from being a pure communication tool to an integrated media terminal, enabling communications and entertainment. The great strides and improvements being made in mobile terminal performance have in turn lead to a quick rise of content requirements. As a result, content services are developing and becoming more diverse, and more multimedia, customization, and personalization oriented.
Statistics data reveals that in 2006, multimedia mobile phones seized 46% of the mobile phone market in China, and became a pioneering force that spurred the popularization of the mobile Internet and integration of technologies. As a result, more and more mobile subscribers have abandoned their antiquated handsets and now are wholeheartedly embracing new-generation intelligent mobile terminals. Communications are no longer a core requirement; instead, subscribers are now showing a greater degree of curiosity and expectations to new services and contents.
"Due to increasing requirements from consumers, new services are exploring larger and larger development spaces. As a result, mobile value-added services have been developing quickly and contributing more in terms of mobile revenues," according to Chen Jiachun, deputy chief of the Telecom Administration Bureau under the Ministry of Information Industry (MII),China. Ms. Chen gave her speech at the Mobile Phone Multimedia Application Conference, which was held in Beijing on July 31, 2007. Chen also said that in 2006, the revenue from mobile data services represented 21.6% of the overall mobile communications revenue in China. Chen concluded by saying, "Mobile communications have gradually transformed from being a communication means, to becoming a lifestyle. Mobile phones have been playing a more and more important role in our daily lives and work."
The quick development of mobile networks, from 2G, to 2.5G, and then to 3G, has led to two results: bigger bandwidth, and an open value chain. Both effects are closely related to data services. Bigger bandwidth builds up a "highway" for data transmission, while the open value chain helps to generate many specialized service providers and content providers (SP/CP). These two effects also help to guarantee the composition and transmission of contents.
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