I have been reading an industry report on the Mobile Download business.
The report highlighted the following facts:
- most downloaders are young people under 25 years old,
- surprisingly, most downloaders are from families with low income.
- People who watch >5 hours of TV a day are more likely to download mobile content.
The report tried to come up with justifications for these intriguing findings, by suggesting poorer people are less likely to have other forms of entertainment such as Game boy or MP3 players, and that TV advertisements make people more inclined to download stuff.
The report suggests that marketing should exploit these facts by targeting the youth, using TV advertisement and promotional activities targeting low income areas. I've read three other papers on the topic which more or less suggest similar things. The ability to sell mobile content - in their opinion- is about how you advertise it and how you price it.
No attempt in the report was made to suggest that perhaps the reason why mobile content downloading actually appeals to the less educated and poorer demographics because they were meant to in the first place. I noticed that in UK, educated people are less likely to want to personalise their phones with wallpapers, ringtones and the like. They are also less likely to run around with earphones listening to music all day long.
Game downloads, ringtones, wallpaper and mp3 music. Is this is all they could think of? I would suggest that it is far mode profitable to come up with applications that appeal to the richer and older generations. First because Europe is getting older anyway: the proportion of old people is increasing every year. Second because rich people have more disposable income, so with the proper content no doubt they will spend more. Such mobile content will be less about "entertainment anywhere" and "instant gratification", and more about convenience and contextual relevance.