Description

There are two main avenues for purchasing mobile content – on-deck and off-deck services.  Until now, mobile operators have offered a branded catalog of mobile content and services that could be purchased from the handset itself. This is defined as the on-deck model of mobile content distribution. In the off-deck model, subscribers could access mobile storefront that are managed independently of the mobile operators. A rich-client strategy was soon adopted in the off-deck space as well, wherein a dedicated client was used for managing access to these services. This market study primarily examines the trends in the off-deck storefront space specifically as they relate to the smart phones and next-generation operating systems.