Mobile Learning

According to this press release, the US mobile learning sector was worth US$460 million in 2006, and is growing at a rate of 27.2% p.a. It is expected to have a value of US$1.5 billion by 2011.

There are now waves of new products hitting the market including language learning, test prep, training podcasts, personal learning tools, location-based services, device-embedded reference, wireless decision support, and handheld continuing education content.

“Unlike elearning which is dominated by corporate buyers, Mobile Learning is being driven by consumer, government, and healthcare buyers,” said Sam Adkins, chief research officer.

The press release links to an executive summary of the research report, which provides the following key findings:

 The largest revenue opportunity for suppliers throughout the forecast period is the demand for Mobile Learning packaged content. The second largest revenue opportunity for suppliers is the demand for content development services and content conversion services.

The largest buyers will be the local, state, and federal governments followed by consumers. The single largest vertical demand is in the healthcare industry. There are several major growth factors driving the US Mobile Learning market:

• Content developers and publishers are aggressively converting legacy content and developing new rich multimedia Mobile Learning content
• The rapid evolution of powerful convergent and connected wireless handheld devices with mobile Web browsers
• The availability of advanced mobile operating systems, robust mobile application software, and rich client interfaces
• User interface technology that overcomes the limitations of the small device footprint of most handheld devices
• The aggressive continuation of the rollout of third-generation (3G) cellular networks in the US that began in 2005
• The rollout of fixed wireless broadband (such as WiMAX) in 2006-2007

The amount of mobile content on the market is growing exponentially. There are now waves of mobile content hitting the market including music, radio, TV, ebooks, audiobooks, podcasts, mobile Web sites, social networking sites, mobile blogs, movies, phonecasting and video conferencing, news, search, advertising, and rich interactive games. Mobile Learning content is one of the products arriving on these waves.

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