Ring Tone Revenue To Hit $724 Million In 2009

(CelebrityAccess MediaWire) JupiterResearch, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation, released the results of its annual wireless forecast, "Wireless Market Forecast, 2004 to 2009," which forecasts mobile phone adoption in the U.S. through 2009 as well as revenue from consumer messaging applications and premium content such as ring tones, games and icons, among others. According to the report, ring tone revenues were $91 million in 2003, more than doubled to $217 million in 2004 and will reach $724 million in 2009. Mobile games revenues were $24 million in 2003, tripled to $72 million in 2004, and should reach $430 million in 2009.

Despite this rapid growth, ring tones and games accounted for just 10% of carriers’ non-access data revenue in 2004, partly because ring tone and game capable handsets have not yet achieved very high market penetration. Overall, data services revenue, including ring tones, games and messaging services, still represent only single-digit percentages of carriers’ consumer revenue. But given the rapid recent and projected growth, U.S. carriers have reason to be optimistic.

"During the next five years, the mix of data services will evolve, but messaging will still account for 65% of non- voice, non-data access revenues," according to Julie Ask, research director at JupiterResearch. Carriers’ premium content revenue mix will continue to diversify with the growing popularity of games, wallpaper, content and productivity applications. Ring tones will remain the largest revenue stream for carriers in the premium content category, but will not dominate as they have in previous years. –Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen