Nokia is the world leader in the manufacture of mobile phones. This coveted position in an industry that sold over 1 billion phones in 2007 makes Nokia the world leader in sales of cameras and digital music players as well - as add-ons to their phones. Is Nokia set to become the dominant platform for gamers as well?
My current phone is a SonyEricsson W810i. I have been very pleased with this phone. It has everything I can think of a mobile phone should have, and most features are quite well done. I heartily recommend this phone for general use.
Many are willing to cast a negative light on the mobile phone game industry. Indeed, the carriers themselves can be the worst critics, willing to isolate the industry as a perpetual niche marketplace. Part of the blame is the stagnant 3% customer base willing to purchase mobile games from carrier decks. However, there are signs of growth in the industry, many not centered around the carrier deck. Perhaps the mobile games industry stands to grow with out without carrier support.
In some circles discussing games for cell phones invites derision and ridicule, particularly from the hard core. Certainly, relative lack of processing power, small screen sizes, limited audio and memory, and tiny keypads are valid arguments against the merits of mobile phones as a game platform. Yet the weight of these factors has diminished over time as newer models are increasingly raising the bar of performance and capability, and developers are pushing the envelope of what can be done on a hand-held device. Indeed, combined with the true strengths of cell phones - mobile ubiquity and deployed volume - EA reports making more profit from their mobile phone games than from either PS3 or PSP games. This from a mocked gaming platform?
Mobile games are projected at over $1 billion in revenue or roughly 5% the size of the standard video game industry. Clearly mobile isn’t just for fun - it’s business. What does it take to join the ranks? What are the top companies looking for? Read on.
Today CIA director Michael Hayden admitted “waterboarding” interrogation had been used on three high-profile al-Qaeda detainees. Waterboarding simulates drowning and, in the minds of the sane, is a form of torture.
Is torture ever justified? A difficult question I will not debate here. What I will discuss is the nature of honesty and the role of just people, particularly our leadership and the news media, in the context of abuse of power.
A new Juniper Research report predicts the North America mobile phone game market will grow from under $800 million in 2007 to over $3 billion by 2012. While this growth is attributed to several factors, key amongst them are:
Some changes happen rapidly while others flow and ebb with glacial speed. As we enter 2008, one of the standard predictions is that this year is the demise of carrier portal domination and the rise of off-carrier deck sites and free choice. It would sound promising, except that this claim has been raised for each of the last 5 years.
Certainly, you can find games off-portal. Over 1.25 million free mobile phone games are downloaded each month from MobileRated, a leading off-carrier deck mobile entertainment site. Other companies are moderately successful selling games directly, but their revenues are dwarfed by that obtained on the carrier decks. The reasons remain the same too.
The mobile phone games industry has grown to become a viable business and yet most involved lament the lack of widespread usage amongst customers. Indeed, by some accounts, only 2.7% of US mobile phone owners have downloaded a game. Furthermore, a sense of stagnation has emerged, a feeling that the mobile games market may just be that small. As with so many one-time promising innovations, mobile phone games have lost the eye of the carriers, who look to mobile tv and other innovations as the new holy grail. What went wrong?
The Mobile Entertainment Forum has released a report revealing customer awareness, usage, and interest in mobile phone services. Few would be surprised to find that customers were most aware of ringtones, but it was perhaps surprising that mobile phone games ranked second, ahead of wallpapers & logos. This is both good news and bad news for the mobile phone games industry. Good news, because 97% of survey respondents were aware of mobile phone games and 23% were actively using them. Bad news, because these numbers suggest a market saturation, where 47% of people remain disinterested and 27% are fairly indifferent - has the industry peaked or are consumers waiting for better product, prices, or delivery options?