Despite competition from digital music players, schemes that relegate the mobile to the position of a mere storage device, and rampant disappointment in ringtones, Gartner forecasts a boom year for mobile music services (which it defines as basic ringtones, realtones and ringback tones to more sophisticated full track downloads and streaming). The amount of money mobile users worldwide spend on music delivered directly to their handsets will reach US$32.2 billion by 2010, up from US$13.7 billion in 2007.
Spending varies dramatically from region to region, with the market in Asia Pacific (including Japan) worth more than twice that in North America (US and Canada). Western Europe is the second largest region for mobile music, with total spending forecast to top US$9.1 billion by 2010, while North America is forecast to reach US$7.1 billion. Ringtones are so last year. Realtones are now the cash cow in these markets. They represent 65 percent of ringtone downloads in North America and 70 percent in Western Europe.
Growth drives are users
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