Mobile Content Protection Market Overview

The need for continuous, ubiquitous access to mobile content is now accepted throughout the mobile marketplace.

Mobile operators, service providers, handset manufacturers and consumers alike benefit from a device that enables the secure download and viewing of premium content. Content producers and providers need to ensure that their content is distributed only in the way they intended. Content protection systems enforce the usage rules determined between the user and the content provider, thus preventing illegal distribution.

Without a protection scheme in place, content will be limited to certain formats and devices. For the consumer this means being locked into one device manufacturer and one service provider. Content protection gives the service provider the ability to establish user rights for multiple devices rather than a single mobile phone, thereby eliminating the need for consumers to repurchase the same content. Content protection also provides the capability to support multiple pricing models ranging from outright purchase to time-based “rental”, again giving the customer a broader selection of choices.

A robust content protection solution must mesh tightly with all elements of the mobile device, from the hardware-based security solution all the way through to the applications layer. Hardware-based embedded security platforms provide the necessary infrastructure for robust, high performance content protection solutions and an outstanding level of security, while overcoming the challenges of performance, power consumption.

The content protection market is constantly changing according to operators’ requirements. The most widely deployed schemes today are OMA DRM, Microsoft WM-DRM 10 and CPRM; however new and emerging schemes such as Apple’s FairPlay, the Coral consortium, the Marlin Joint Development Association initiative, Sun’s DReaM Project and OMA-BCAST are gaining different levels of traction.

Such a dynamic market requires a solution that efficiently addresses the current requirements and yet is flexible enough to adjust to an ever-changing environment, while not impeding the user experience.