NEW YORK - The popularity of mobile applications is revolutionizing mobile content and entertainment distribution, according to a panel at the Mobile Marketing Association's Mobile Marketing Forum.

While mobile content used to be dominated by ringtones and wallpapers, now it is trending towards games, full-track music downloads, TV and video, often delivered within an application. The monetization strategy tends to be ad support, subscription or pay-per-download.

"The increased speed of the networks and the popularity of new devices such as the iPhone and BlackBerry are creating new trends of consumption, which has been critical to the take-off of the industry, which had been constrained by device functionality, network speeds and carriers flexibility of pricing and marketing innovations," said Fabrice Sergent, CEO of Cellfish Media

Cellfish specializes in off-deck and direct-to-consumer mobile entertainment products, which it promotes in traditional, online and mobile media.

"It's never been more exciting than now, consumer demand for mobile entertainment has never been so high and content discovery has never been so easy," Mr. Sergent said. "Growth has never been so strong -- we've seen double-digit growth month-to-month."

In addition to the spread of smartphones and faster access to wireless networks, the next tipping point could be the further spread of flat-rate all-you-can-eat data plans.

"The penetration of unlimited flat-rate data plans is critical to the success of the industry, which is proven by the behavior of consumers that have them," Mr. Sergent said. "Mobile is very privileged compared to the Internet, because you can have ad-supported content, and premium provides another opportunity."

In mobile, consumers can choose which monetization engine they prefer, which instills consumer confidence in choosing the billing system, or opting to view ads.

Thumbplay specializes in music, video, games and other premium services for mobile, although it focuses on subscription-base and pay-per-download models.

"Consumers starting to use very different types of services focused on music and video, instead of just personalization content such as ringtones and wallpapers on older feature phones," said Are Trassadahl, founder/CEO of Thumbplay. "Twelve months ago under 5 percent of our customers had a smartphone, but now the number is 50 percent, which allows us to sell completely different types of products.

"We've been waiting for this moment for 10 years, and now the platforms and the speeds we're been looking for are here," he said. "Monetization is a combination of free and paid, and while the free models are usually hard to make work long-term, it's a great way to hook consumers on the service.

"It's important to get the consumer into that experience before they enter their credit card info, but if you don't have a great way to convert them into a premium subscriber, you'll go through your capital pretty quickly."

The bottom line is that if you give consumers a great experience, they will lock in and know the value proposition of the service they will be paying for.

From a mobile content provider perspective, the cost of launching mobile applications is so much cheaper than it used to be. One panelist said you can get a smartphone app up and running for between $3,000 and $5,000.

Unique in U.S. huge install base of BB and other devices, great job of getting a lot of devices out there, consumers with BB are willing to pay for services, 2009 will be a big comeback for the U.S.

Slacker has both iPhone and BlackBerry applications. The company lets consumers create personalized radio stations by picking their favorite songs and artists.

The company has an ad-supported version and a subscription service for $3.99 a month.

"Cell phones are becoming an extension of the Web, and mobile apps are a game changer," said Alan Baum, chief revenue officer for Slacker Radio. "Apple's iTunes and iPods have established the market -- music has to be mobile -- and we're seeing with these apps that we can compete in that space.

"A lot of new businesses fall short on monetization, and if you look at the music industry as a whole, it's a struggle, but now with these apps, it's totally different," he said. "It's not just ad support, because people want different types of models.

"We provide free radio to an audience that doesn't care about listening to ads, and another way to make money is to charge for your service with those consumers who prefer to not listen to ads."