According to estimates, more than 80% of the global population has a smartphone, or more accurately, there are more than 6.6 billion smartphone users. These mind-boggling statistics are eye-opening for most industries. Digitalization is unavoidable, and the entertainment industry has been at the forefront of this progress.
Why are mobile phones such disruptors?
The landscape totally changed after Apple introduced the first iPhone. Feature phones replaced fixed phones and slowly integrated digital music. The real change came with the first smartphones and email and chat clients. The explosive growth and technological advance in the meantime led to powerful all-in-one computers with giant OLED screens in our pockets.
Mobile phones are client devices that replace hundreds of devices and services, and mobile apps are drivers of these disruptive changes. For example, when did you go to the bank last time or check sports results or highlights on something other than a smartphone?
The growing use of mobile phones has completely changed the entertainment industry over the last few years.
Mobile gaming
Mainstream gaming has gone mobile, and it is estimated that the market will reach $170 billion by 2025. More and more games are going mobile-first, and the highly saturated market of mobile games is seeing the change from casual and simple games to titles comparable to PC and console games. Triple-A games are slowly adapting to the new reality in which labels like PUBG Mobile can earn over $2 billion. Aside from PUBG, you can play games like Genshin Impact, Fortnite and other full-fledged titles on mobile devices.
Another sector taking full advantage of better mobile phones and broadband internet is iGaming. Online casinos often offer more than a thousand games in their libraries, with innovative graphics; sometimes, a live dealer that emulates traditional casinos utilizes technology and has a great user experience. With a few clicks on the mobile phone, you can find the best UK casino site and start playing the visually appealing game.
Video streaming
While gaming is the most lucrative entertainment niche, video streaming services severely changed the industry. It was imaginable that blockbuster movies would skip the cinemas, but now some streaming platforms have exclusive rights for top films.
Traditional television providers also lose the battle to services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. These platforms have transformed the industry for over a decade, created exclusive content, and offered vast libraries of shows and movies. However, following the success of primarily Netflix, new counterparts arose, and now the market is heavily contested with new players like Disney Plus.
Each platform has exclusive content, and segmentation is not always favorable for users because they can get less content per platform than before. Traditional broadcasters also accepted the streaming technology, and most TV houses have mobile apps with streaming options and shows on demand.
Sports content is the main driver for traditional and cable scheduled programming because it is live TV. However, even sports leagues now offer various mobile apps with live streaming options.
YouTube, Twitch, and Vimeo are streaming platforms with massive content and are available on multiple platforms, including smart TVs. So you can now have a TV in the house and use it without ever watching traditional TV stations.
Millions of songs in your pocket
Digital music transformed the music industry, and streaming services created significant disruption beyond the MP3 revolution of the early 2000s. Platforms like Spotify, Deezer or Tidal have libraries with almost all popular music, and you can have all your favorite albums in your pocket for a small monthly fee.
Streaming services also provide a platform for upcoming artists and podcasters. But, simultaneously, it can be hard to find what to listen to among so many choices simultaneously. All streaming providers invest heavily in machine learning to offer the user what to hear next. Then, you can explore new music or have your best stream with your favorite artists.
Social media
Social media networks are hubs where users comment and share content. You can find new stuff by recommendation from social network profiles, but social media have become entertainment hubs in the last few years. You can play games, create and share videos, and browse for hours through streams of more or less entertaining short videos and pictures.
Social networks on mobile phones take advantage of shorter attention spans and are focused on more concise content. TikTok and Instagram are overtaking Facebook as the most popular social media networks, and they are doing it with such short and fun content.
Mobile phones are a complete entertainment hub, where you can aggregate content from gaming, video, sport, traditional TV and music streaming with few installed apps. If you think the mobile screen is too small, you can cast the streaming content to a larger screen over Wi-Fi or other screen-sharing technologies.