Creators pushed beyond phones
A new forecast says content creators are moving 'beyond the smartphone', identifying an upgrade opportunity for audio, lighting and hybrid production setups as creators professionalise. That suggests modest, targeted equipment improvements can signal credibility to collaborators and brands without requiring a full studio. (advanced-television.com)
The new creator gear story is not about people ditching phones. It is about 246 million online video creators in 2025 starting to spend on the weak spots phones do not fix well, with Futuresource saying the total will reach 267 million by 2030. (futuresource-consulting.com) Futuresource says smartphones are still the primary video device for the vast majority of creators. The shift is happening one layer up, where creators add a microphone, a light, or a dedicated camera instead of replacing the whole workflow at once. (futuresource-consulting.com) That makes sense because phones removed the cost of getting started, but they did not remove the physics. Futuresource says weak capture becomes more visible as creators make more videos, which usually means bad sound, flat lighting, or shaky framing gets noticed faster. (futuresource-consulting.com) The market signal is not tiny. Futuresource says a significant portion of creators already own accessories or dedicated hardware beyond a smartphone, and it expects that group to grow at 4 percent a year through 2030. (futuresource-consulting.com) The near-term buying intent is even clearer. Nearly half of online creators in the survey said they had considered buying new equipment in the previous 12 months. (futuresource-consulting.com) Futuresource splits this market into hobbyists, aspirational creators, and professionals. The middle and top tiers made up about 35 percent of creators in 2025, and the firm expects them to rise to about 38 percent by 2030. (futuresource-consulting.com) That middle tier is where the spending starts to look like a business budget instead of an impulse buy. In a separate 2026 Futuresource study, home studios accounted for 55.3 percent of total studio and broadcast revenue in 2025, ahead of traditional broadcasters and facilities. (tvbeurope.com) By 2029, Futuresource expects home studios to reach 56.6 percent of the worldwide studio and broadcast market value. It also forecasts 4.6 percent annual growth for home studio demand, versus 3.2 percent for professional studio and broadcast. (tvbeurope.com) Artificial intelligence is part of this story, but not in the way people usually mean. Futuresource says four in five creators already use artificial intelligence in workflows like editing, idea generation, and visual effects, which means faster publishing raises the penalty for weak audio and weak lighting. (futuresource-consulting.com) The commercial backdrop is that platforms are building more direct pipes between creators and brands. YouTube says its creator partnerships tools help brands find and work with creators, while TikTok says its Creator Marketplace is its official platform for brand collaborations, so cleaner production increasingly sits next to measurable campaign performance. (business.google.com) (creatormarketplace.tiktok.com) So the upgrade path in 2026 looks less like renting a studio and more like fixing the one thing viewers notice first. A $100 microphone, a key light on a desk, or a small camera for hybrid shooting can move a creator from “posted from my phone” to “ready for a sponsor call” without changing everything else. (futuresource-consulting.com) (advanced-television.com)
