Mobile Porn soon to be in North American markets

The adult entertainment industry has been licking its lips to get into the mobile market, and they may be in soon. Mobile porn is already widespread in Europe, where Christian crusaders are a thing of the past, and now all eyes are on North America.

Mobile porn was a $775 million industry in Europe last year and is expected to grow to $1.5 billion by 2012. The global market is expected to reach $3.5 billion by 2010 according to Juniper Research. North American revenue, on the other hand, only reached $26 million last year, partly due to carriers shying away from the issue. For example, Canada's Telus Corp. withdrew mobile porn service last year after receiving hundreds of customer complaints and criticism from the Catholic Church. The growing prevalence of smart phones with quality browsing ability.

The ability to display high quality graphics is a necessity for the mobile porn industry according to analyst Michael King of Gartner Telecom, who believes porn is "one of the bigger pieces of Web revenue. You would assume the natural extension would be on mobile." King also thinks mobile porn will be more prevalent in 2009, simply because there will be more phones around that can display it. Gregory Piccionelli, a lawyer specializing in adult entertainment, says the iPhone, which Apple has forecast to sell 10 million units by the end of 2008, is ideal for viewing porn due to its graphics and Web browser that mimics computer browsers. Google's up and coming phone system will also offer ideal browsing. Technical capability is only the first step however, the willingness of carriers to support pornographic content is the big hurdle.

Pornography is a highly contentious issue here in the land of thou-must-judge-thy-neighbors zealots, and service providers need to take that into consideration. Carriers are progressing however. Verizon Wireless has promised to let customers use any device or software that will work on its network this year. Sprint will also support an array of devices for its fast internet service that begins this year. Sprint spokesperson John Polivka says customers will be able to view anything they like and Web filters will be provided to keep minors from adult sites. Neustar is spearheading the mobile age verification system and aims to have both a U.S. carrier client and a content customer within six months.

With the groundwork just about set, the industry is ready to roll. Jay Grdina, president of ClubJenna Inc. (husband of, you guessed it, Jenna Jameson) believes the porn industry needs to be on top of mobile phone trends to survive. Before his keynote speech to the Mobile Adult Content Congress in Miami this week, Grdina said in an interview, "If you don't evolve you're going to die. ... We need to make sure we're ready." The conference is basically a brainstorming session amongst adult entertainment and technology companies over how to make mobile porn a viable business. ClubJenna was bought by Playboy Enterprises Inc. in 2006 and YouTube plans to expand to even more mobile phones and show ClubJenna content. Although it will be free, Grdina believes it will expand the brand and give the U.S. porn market a boost.

The bottom line is... go buy a phone with quality browsing capability.

[via Reuters]

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