US mLearning Market for 2010 Up $326M on 2009

May 28, 2011 | Mobile Learning

Well if you ever had any doubts about the growing popularity of mobile learning, this report should put those to rest. Ambient Insight have published a revision of last year’s US Mobile Learning industry report which covered 2009-2014, this time covering 2010-2015.

Back last year I wrote this post covering the stats from their August 2010 report. But now due to ‘favorable market conditions’, Ambient Insight have revised their predictions upwards and it’s definitely worth re-visiting the numbers.

Introductory points

  • The US market for Mobile Learning Products and Services reached $958.7M in 2010 (this figure was $632.2M in 2009).
  • Top buyers of mobile learning remain to be the same:
    • USA
    • Japan
    • South Korea
    • the UK
    • Taiwan
  • Highest growth rates are in China, India, Indonesia and Brazil
  • By the end of 2015 China will be the second largest buying country after the US

 

The current US Mobile learning market is being driven by:

  • Consumers and healthcare were early adopters and still dominate
  • Corporations have been late adopters until recently. The growth rate for this sector is now 29.3%.
  • The second highest growth rate at 26.1% belongs to NGO, non-profit, and association segment

 

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The content distribution channel is expanding rapidly:

  • As of February 2011 there were over hundred app stores across the globe, growing by 1-2 stores a month
  • There are over 650 telecom operations in the world and there are now “white-label” app store platforms that allow them to launch branded pre-stocked app stores quickly
  • In October 2010 Apple introduced a new Special Education sector in their app store. At launch it had 85 apps in five categories. This expands the reach of mLearning to over 5 million US school children that need specialized content to mitigate cognitive and physical impairments

 

Networks are getting faster and devices smarter

  • As of 2010, 28% of US phones in use were smartphones. By early 2012, 34% will be smartphones.
  • In 2010 and 2011 tablet device makers launched products specifically designed for eLearning tending to target early childhood, PreK-12 and higher education.
  • By the end of 2015 the US will have the largest 4G coverage in the world (Lightsquared)

 

Explosion of new mobile learning content:

The twelve types of packaged applications and content purchased by the eight buying segments included in the report are:

  1. Language learning
  2. Travel and tourism
  3. Academia test prep
  4. General education, study guides, and reference
  5. How-to-manuals and guides
  6. Simulation and game-based learning
  7. Location-based learning
  8. Medical, health, nutrition, and fitness
  9. Business, sales, and finance
  10. Handheld decision support and performance support
  11. Professional licensure, continuing education (CE), and continuing medical education (CME)
  12. Professional training and development

It’s interesting to note down their definition of mobile learning too:

‘Ambient Insight defines Mobile Learning as knowledge transfer events,
content, tools, and applications accessed on handheld computing devices.’

You can red the report summary here or purchase the full report on their website.

And speaking of mobile learning, don’t forget about the eLearning Guild’s mLearnCon conference coming up June 21-23 in San Jose, California. I went along last year – it was the first time it was held – and I can personally vouch for the huge value in attending. Whether you’re looking for advice on designing mobile content, deploying to mobile devices, the right tools to use or learning management systems with mobile delivery, this is the place to go.

 

@Schnicker