Mobile online video play sees phenomenal growth

More and more people are using their mobile devices for watching online content. In fact, the latest stats from online video service provider Ooyala suggest that non-desktop video plays more than doubled in the final quarter of 2011.

Intuitively you’d think that much of that growth would be driven by short-form videos. It’s just more difficult to pay attention to a long video on a smaller screen right? Ooyala’s stats, however, suggest that people actually prefer watching longer videos on their smartphones and tablets to their desktops.

The screen size rule of thumb still seems to apply to some degree, considering that the majority of long-form videos are watched on connected TVs and gaming consoles. These devices also account for the greatest viewer engagement, just ahead of tablets.

Those figures may change in the future as tablets are expected to experience a 528% annual growth in their share of video plays.

Apple appears to be winning the OS wars when it comes to mobile video play share. There was, however, a marked spike on the back of Apple releasing the iPhone 4S. Nonetheless iOS’ 156% growth dwarves Android’s 61%.

In the world of social videos meanwhile, it seems that Likes beat out Tweets. According to Ooyala, more than 10 videos were shared on Facebook, for every one shared via Twitter.

Despite some doubts around its continued existence late last year, total video plays on Google TV grew by 91% in the last quarter of 2011.