Some sobering figures from Jupiter Research saying that interest in premium mobile services such as streaming video and music is not growing as fast as the industry expects.  The report, ‘European Mobile Services Consumer Survey, 2006’, found that just 32% of European mobile users are willing to pay for mobile content and services beyond basic messaging.

Beyond voice, the report says, Europeans primarily use their phones for messaging, with 79% of European mobile users using SMS, followed by MMS (28%). Almost a third also take pictures, but current adoption of premium content is skewed towards younger demographics and has relatively niche adoption across all mobile users. Despite large revenues driven by high frequency of purchase, ring tones, logos, animations, and games all register less than 15% adoption. Just 8% of Europeans watch mobile video, though this rises to 12% in the UK, due to a higher installed base of video-enabled phones and the promotion of innovative services such as video shortcodes and made-for-mobile content.

“Return on investment will take significantly longer to achieve than many companies expect.” says report author and JupiterResearch Mobile Analyst, Thomas Husson. “Facing price pressure on voice, mobile operators now have to move beyond the lucrative youth market to recoup their investment in 3G networks.”

Actually a 15% adoption rate for "higher" services is pretty good and a definite increase from a year ago. Mobile content has been pegged as the revenue driver for the whole industry going forward and record breaking sales of cameraphones attest to that. I don't find this report worrisome - I think this is a turnaround point requiring providers to work harder towards making more mobile friendly services. 

Source:  Mobile Marketing Magazine and Jupiter Research.

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