The ongoing increase in media tablet, smartphone and eReader device adoption has stimulated demand for high-quality multimedia content -- including video, audio, interactive games, news, books and periodicals.
Digital media publishers have been busy re-purposing their archive content and are now ready to accelerate plans for new content development in 2012. The upside market opportunity is apparently unprecedented.
eMarketer estimates that the number of U.S. tablet users will reach 89.5 million in 2014 -- that's up from 33.7 million in 2011. Tablet users will make up 35.6 percent of internet users in 2014 -- that's up from 14.5 percent this year.
U.S. adult eReader users will reach 53.9 million by 2014 -- that's up from 33.3 million in 2011. eMarketer also expects robust growth in smartphone users, even though that product category is more mature than tablets and eReaders.
By 2015, there will be 148.6 million smartphone users in the U.S. -- that's up from 90.1 million in 2011. These users will represent 58 percent of mobile phone users in 2015 -- that's up from 38 percent this year.
Collectively, these devices create demand for software applications (apps), streaming video and audio, games, ebooks and periodicals, social networking and other marketer-supported activities.
Digital media availability has already skyrocketed to meet the demands of consumers with smart devices. These confluent trends should help U.S. online video advertising to more than triple over the next four years, according to eMarketer estimates.
The more consumers adopt new devices in 2012, the more they access new forms of digital content on every available screen -- and they expect the user experience to be familiar across devices and publishing platforms.
Those best suited to meet these user expectations will become the market leaders that can deliver hardware, software, digital content and social integration. The savvy marketers that will gain the most from this evolving multimedia content ecosystem are those that understand how to deliver the best possible experience across each platform.