By
Trendiculous on May 27th, 2006
Posted in Market Trends | No Comments »
Telephia reports that mobile game sales continue to show strong performance during the first quarter of 2006, with wireless consumers buying more than 8.2 million games on their phones in March, up 53% from since January 2006. The number of unique mobile game buyers also jumped significantly, surging 44% from nearly 3.5 million in January to 5 million in March, despite other recent reports that show idle growth.
Nearly 12% of all game downloads were free during the first quarter of the year. Audience and revenue measurements for this study were collected directly from the bills of an opt-in panel of nearly 35,000 mobile consumers. “Purchase behavior from consumer bills (vs. respondent recall) is essential for accurate measurement”.
The top 5 mobile game titles In terms of revenue share:
Tetris (5.2%)
Tetris Deluxe (3.6%)
Bejeweled (2.6%)
JAMDAT Mahjong (2.2%)
Ms. Pac-Man (2.0%)
Mobile Statistics
1.5 bln mobile subscriptions in Asia-Pacific by 2010
10.8 mln mobile subscribers in Bangladesh
11 mln mobile subscribers in Bangladesh
11 mln mobile subscribers in Pakistan
125.8 mln mobile subscribers in Russia
13% of US wireless customers consider their service excellent
15% of US mobile users use mobile Web
2.5 bln mobile subscribers by the end of 2006
2.7% of Americans downloaded a mobile game
2.75% of mobile subscribers use virtual operators
20% of Australian phone users ready to cut the cord
207.9 mln wireless users in the US in 2005, 69% penetration
226.7 mln cell phones sold in Q1 2006 globally
24% of cell phone users feel they have to answer a call no matter what
27% of Europeans buy a new cell phone every year
27% of Japanese mobile consumer use bar code readers
3.8 mln of British mobile users had some SMS-related injury
33.32% of US mobile users sent or received text messages
34.8 mln mobile phones sold in the US in Q1 2006
36% of US wireless customers have been shocked by their wireless bills
37% of mobile households have checked e-mail on their phones
41% of Americans fill in their free time with calling someone on their wireless phone
41% of mobile phone owners are interested in videos
420 mln mobile users in China
44 mln cell phones sold in Japan in 2005
50% of US mobile subscribers own a cameraphone
54.1 mln Americans use Cingular, 51.3 mln - Verizon
58% of teens have cell phones
6% of US households rely exclusively on cell phones
610 mln mobile subscribers in China by 2009
7.8% of US households use cell phones instead of land lines
825.5 mln mobile phones sold in 2005, 16.7% growth
86.2 mln Brazilians have mobile phones
9.32 mln mobile subscribers in Hungary
90 mln mobile subscribers in India
930 mln mobile phones to sell in 2006
Average cell phone conversation lasts 3 minutes 15 seconds
Cell phone exam cheating in England up 27%
Cell phone penetration in Mexico reached 46% in 2005
Central and Eastern European mobile subscription revenues up 13.5% in 2005
Ireland is at 100% mobile penetration
Japanese cell phone market up 11.4% in January 2006
Japanese kids generated $275 mln for wireless industry in 2005
Men more likely than women to drive and talk on cell phones
Mobile phone market share for Q1 2006: Nokia - 33.1%, Motorola - 20.3%, Samsung - 12.8%, LG Electronics - 6.9%, Sony Ericsson - 5.9%
PIM freaks spend 13% more on wireless bills than average cellular users
Revenues per mobile user down by 11% in Finland in 2005
Top mobile vendors in Western Europe in Q1 2006: Nokia, RIM, HP, Palm
UK mobile services industry to generate $100 mln by 2008
US is at 70% wireless penetration
US SMBs to spend $18 bln on wireless bills in 2006
US wireless penetration reaches 70%, 200 mln subscribers
Verizon and Cingular both added 1.7 mln customers in Q1 2006
Wireless revenue from US businesses will grow to $52 bln in 2010
Past IQ Reports
Top social networking sites
Prevent Identity Theft
Word of Mouth Communications
European Mobile Users Replace
BPO Market in Asia/Pacific in 2010
Adults in the Dark About Latest Tech Buzzwords
Cable Subscribers Wanting More Choices
What’s Driving Ad Growth
Worldwide Mobile Phone Penetration
Catalogs Making The Shift to Digital
Women Online
Newspapers Gaining New Market Share Online
The Fast Growing Blogosphere
Awareness of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
Global Broadband Penetration Leaders
Best WiFi Hotels for 2006
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By
technicool on May 21st, 2006
Posted in Industry & Competitors | No Comments »
Near Future of Mobile Content; Handset Is Cash Register
E-Mail Article
Print Version
Near Future of Mobile Content; Handset Is Cash Register
By Howard Buzick
E-Commerce Times
04/04/05 5:00 AM PT
Since NTT DoCoMo launched its i-mode service in 1998, there have been varying degrees of hype about the future of mobile content and the revenue potential of applications run on wireless data networks. Early versions of wireless application protocol (WAP) in Europe and North America did not garner much consumer interest.
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Since NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) Latest News about NTT DoCoMo successfully launched its i-mode service in 1998, there have been varying degrees of hype about the future of mobile content and the revenue potential of applications run on wireless data networks.
Early versions of wireless application protocol (WAP) in Europe and North America did not garner much interest from consumers, but with improvements in technology and business models, momentum is steadily building.
The market for mobile content providers is well developed in Asia. According to IDC, wireless gaming revenues alone in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) will rise from US$237 million in 2003 to roughly $1.3 billion in 2008.
Payment Via Phone Bill
Already in Europe, mobile content companies are realizing hundreds of millions of euros in annual revenue from delivering content to consumers’ mobile phones. Although mobile content in North America is just now gaining significant traction, it has similar long-term potential.
Micro-billing on the service-user’s phone bill makes payment for content straightforward, and consumers are accustomed to paying for incremental services on their phone — a notable difference from content provided over the wired Internet.
A study released by Juniper Research looked at the worldwide micropayment market with an emphasis on the mobile channel. Juniper projects that the global mobile commerce market, excluding mobile entertainment, will become a $40 billion industry by 2009 fueled by a growth in micropayments.
Juniper reports: “Large numbers of small payments will make up the vast majority of sales via mobile phones, with the average Western European making approximately 28 transactions a year via the mobile phone by 2009. The average cost of each transaction in 2009 in Western Europe is expected to be worth approximately $3.00.”
Both online and on the phone, a lot is riding on consumer’s ability to pay very little, quickly, securely and conveniently.
Mobile Content Services
The economies of scale also work strongly in favor of a mobile content provider. A single service, once developed properly, can be delivered to millions of paying customers at a very small cost. Typically, the wireless carrier handles the billing in exchange for a percentage of revenue, passing along the remainder to the mobile content provider.
The mobile content services that make the most money today in North America follow the pattern first observed in Asia, with personalization generating the most initial interest — ring tones, logos, wallpapers, screensavers, etc. However, this will shift quickly to more complex applications, including interactive java games, stock tickers, mapping systems and video on demand. And mobile consumers will willingly pay for these services.
A survey conducted late last year by ForceNine Consulting and Wirthin Worldwide and released by Harris Interactive (Nasdaq: HPOL) Latest News about Harris Interactive revealed that about 40 percent of U.S. adults with mobile phones who use non-voice applications on those phones also pay extra for them.
The study found that although the charges amounted to just 10 percent of these users’ bills, non-voice app users tend to have higher than average bills.
Andrew Roscoe, partner with ForceNine Consulting, notes, “because non-voice services are in their early, high-growth stage, they are already having an important impact on ARPU [average revenue per user] growth, as was pointed out by several carriers in their second quarter 2004 earnings announcements.”
Complex Development
Noah Elkin of eMarketer points out: “Monthly average revenue per user for voice services has been falling for several years and the pace of decline will accelerate in the next three to five years, putting greater pressure on operators to grow their subscriber rolls. Data service ARPU and revenues, on the other hand, are trending in the opposite direction, and operators increasingly will depend on data services (meaning non-voice content and applications) to bolster their balance sheets.”
All of these opportunities in the mobile content space do, however, come with a challenge. Development of Internet content is relatively straightforward, with many content providers developing only for one browser. Development in the wireless world can be much more complex.
There is a wide range of end-user devices available on the market. On a typical wireless carrier, more than 100 types of handsets all supporting some variety of wireless data services are actively operating on the network. Most of these devices support text messaging and some flavor of WAP Latest News about WAP service. Dozens of them support picture messaging, and a handful today support video on demand services.
Each handset has a different profile, with varying screen height and width, support for different graphic file types, monophonic or polyphonic ring tone capability, compatibility with various flavors of WAP, availability of a range of java classes for application support, and so on. To successfully launch a mobile content service, it is critical to understand the profile of a wide variety of handsets.
Thankfully, the handset manufacturers do publish a detailed profile for each device released on the market. In many cases, however, last minute changes during development make these profiles inaccurate. As a result, most mobile content providers will still have to perform tests against a wide variety of handsets before finally launching a service.
Complete Testing Necessary
The consequences of incomplete testing in some cases can be rather extreme. If a handset cannot support a given content type, users might end up paying for a service that their device cannot download successfully. If a handset does not support a particular java class, it might successfully download the application, but it will not be usable by the paying customer.
Handling customer support issues that involve billing problems will quickly erase the benefits inherent to mobile content services. And that does not even address the damage to the brand from a less than optimal customer experience.
Complete testing of a mobile content service on dozens of handsets can be an onerous task. A simple solution might be to limit availability of the service to a handful of strategically chosen devices, but this would, of course, shrink the number of potential customers for your service. The best answer: find a way to automate testing across a wide range of handsets.
Today there are two major solutions to this problem: automating tests on actual end user handsets, and running an accurate software simulation of these handsets. By doing this, providers can assure customers that what they are paying for works. This can enhance brand loyalty.
As the mobile content market continues to grow, there are numerous opportunities for creative companies to launch unique and profitable services. By recognizing the challenges inherent to these services and by resolving them early, providers can ensure a high-quality experience for all consumers, encourage loyalty and maximize the potential market opportunity for everyone.
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By
technicool on May 20th, 2006
Posted in Other Interesting Articles | No Comments »
Market Overview
Over the next five years, network operator revenue and profit growth will come from data services such as ringtones, games and multimedia as operators start to release the potential of their investments in mobile networks. According to the ARC Group of London, worldwide sales of wireless entertainment services will jump from US$8.2 billion in 2003 to US$28.2 billion in 2008. Also in 2005, the downloadable games component of entertainment services will surpass ringtones as a revenue generator for operators, exceeding US$6 billion in 2008, versus US$4 billion for ringtones. Operators are also looking to leverage data services, and the associated user experience, to increase customer loyalty, reduce churn and customer acquisition costs, which are particularly relevant items in markets approaching 100% saturation.
Current Mobile Data Services Experience
It is difficult for phone users to find what data services are on offer. It takes an average of 120-150 seconds to locate content. Being able to quickly discover data services is the single most important factor in determining how likely a service is to be used:
A recent study from User Analytics found that:
* 80% of 18-24 year olds aborted downloads if they did not receive their content in 10 seconds.
* Once response times slowed much beyond five seconds, completion rates started to drop.
* On a slow network, with response times closer to ten seconds, over 80% of people either abandoned the task or said they would turn to an alternative information source.
Mobile User Experience Needs
Users have a number of needs when discovering and consuming data services:
* Capability – fit for purpose; does what you want/need
* Ease of use – users don’t like to think; just get the task done
* Money – cost effective, perceived value for money, transparency of costs
* Ubiquity – movement, communicate, play on the move
* Immediacy – of both voice & data communications
* Self expression – user empowerment, personalisation, customisation, content & trendy brand association, differentiation
* Reassurance – Quality of Service (QoS), confidence in recognised credentials
* Community – communications, sharing of mobile content and experiences
* Choice – a variety of data services and interfaces personalised by the user
SurfKitchen is uniquely focused on addressing these issues by delivering a Dynamic User Experience (DUE) that differentiates itself from browser-based models currently on the market.
“One of the biggest obstacles facing carriers’ ability to generate repeat purchases for download content is ease-of-use or the number of “clicks” it takes to get to the content. Carriers do not have much control over the basic menu functions of a wireless handset, as this is mainly dictated by the handset vendor. However, carriers have alternative methods to drive customer awareness and repeat business for wireless content outside of the constraints of the initial handset vendor user interface (UI) menu. In some cases, carriers work closely with vendors to establish a one-click button to access the carrier’s content library.”
Suzzana Ellyn - Senior Analyst
Wireless Services, Current Analysis
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By
technicool on May 20th, 2006
Posted in Other Interesting Articles, Bango | Comments Off
Crisp Wireless : News
Bango and Crisp Wireless answer entertainment industry’s call for mobile content delivery
NEW YORK , JULY 19, 2005 — Mobile content delivery innovator, Crisp Wireless, and mobile Internet enabler, Bango, today introduced an end-to-end software solution that answers the entertainment industry’s call for a solid, proven method of commercializing mobile content anywhere, immediately.
The direct-to-consumer solution combines Crisp’s expertise in mobile content provisioning with Bango’s superior content discovery, identification and billing . This combination of services is critical to consumer brands seeking to reach people more broadly through their mobile phone. Brands leverage their mainstream marketing such as advertising and promotions to connect users to mobile content.
The two companies have enabled mobile content delivery for major brands including NBC, AOL, Hearst Corp., News International, Universal Music and Dennis Publishing.
Industry analysts, LogicaCMG, forecast consumer demand worldwide for downloadable mobile phone content to triple in the next 12 months creating a $9.1 billion market. This explosive growth is prompting brands to search for the most rapid and efficient way of mobilizing their content to users anywhere in the world. At the same time, mobile phone users, still somewhat restricted by differences in network and handset technologies, are trying to figure out how to pay for content in an easy manner.
“We are, quite literally, providing the missing link in the globalization of mobile content. Mobile users don’t recognize international boundaries so it’s vital that a mobile content service works well in all countries and brands can collect payment for their content no matter where the user is located,” said Ray Anderson, Bango CEO.
Bango, the world’s largest direct channel for mobile content, enables fast, easy access to mobile sites for users, provides user identification to content providers and then enables consumers to pay for mobile content using the best available payment method – on any network, anywhere in the world.
Crisp Wireless is a leading provider of next generation mobile content management and wireless delivery software applications to media and entertainment companies. Crisp Wireless’ mLogic™ Media 3G product provides seamless content management and delivery capabilities through a visually powerful, intuitive interface. The server component of mLogic Media 3G provides subscription and billing functionality, content management, automated image and video formatting as well as advanced user management.
“The value of Bango’s carrier relationships, and their vast array of content provider relationships affords our customers a strong global partner for content delivery solutions,” said Boris Fridman, CEO of Crisp Wireless. “Combining Crisp’s expertise in mobile content provisioning with Bango’s superior content discovery and billing offers any of our joint customers a solid, proven method of monetizing their mobile content anywhere, immediately.”
About Bango
Bango has developed and deployed an open, global, infrastructure platform that enables content providers to market, sell and deliver their products and services directly to mobile phone users on all mobile networks using the mobile Internet. This “direct-to-consumer” approach operates alongside the mobile operator’s mobile content portals. Leading mobile operators including Vodafone, Orange, Telefonica and O2 work with Bango to accelerate the growth of their “direct-to-consumer” business. Leading content brands are now adopting the Bango Service to engage with all of their existing and potential mobile customers directly – irrespective of mobile operator. For further information, go to www.bango.com.
About Crisp Wireless
Crisp Wireless is the leading provider of mobile applications and content management solutions for consumer-facing enterprises. Crisp Wireless provides companies with an innovative new medium to reach their customers, create new sources of revenue, and capitalize on the emerging mobile marketplace. The mLogic 3G technology solutions and Crisp Wireless’ development and management services enable clients to rapidly and economically deploy multimedia content and mobile commerce solutions across all carriers and handsets. Crisp’s customers include such major media and entertainment companies as AOL, IMG, the Hearst Corporation, NBC Olympics, and others. For more information, please contact info@crispwireless.com or visit www.crispwireless.com.
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Administrator on May 20th, 2006
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Bango bakes m-commerce cookies | The Register
Fingerprints
By IT Analysis
Published Monday 12th May 2003 11:04 GMT
Security White Papers - Download them free from Reg Research
What if you could access items of content from content providers, but not have to keep logging-on each time? Now this might sound like the idea behind Microsoft’s .NET Passport with one account for all online services, but this is different.
This week Bango.net announced Bango Fingerprint, which provides a unique identity designed to smooth the communication between a mobile user and a mobile site that offers content. This identity or fingerprint can be used in a similar way to which a website and browser might use cookies. This means a content provider can automatically authenticate a returning user, and even provide some continuity services such as managing a ’shopping basket’ of multiple items being purchased.
All well and good you may say, but what about my privacy?
Bango holds the fingerprint tokens on their server, and these tokens don’t reveal the user’s name or phone number to the content provider, just the fact that you’re the same user who was there earlier. Bango accounts also provide access to a variety of billing services for content providers, so this is really an extension of that facility. Again, the content providers don’t access the user’s billing information directly, they just get to know if they’re good for the money.
What about Fraud?
Content providers can see if the fingerprint is valid and even double-check over the air with Bango. Users have to be careful, but no more so than usual. The fingerprint uses the unique id of the phone in conjunction with checking the route from the operator’s gateway, so is tied to the SIM.
Of course if a phone is lost or stolen there is the possibility of fraudulent use until reported and barred, when the Bango account would be frozen. However, the average Bango account balance is around 40p, so in the event of phone theft or loss, it’s likely that losses from fraudulent expensive calls would be the larger concern.
Bango Fingerprint offers a slicker and more friendly user experience. Content providers can offer a personalised service, because they recognise who’s coming back… not from their true identity, but on their buying patterns with that content provider. They can concentrate on marketing and how best to generate returns from their content.
If mobile commerce is to succeed, it has to be convenient. As Anil Malhotra, marketing VP at Bango, states, “It’s not the quality of the product that prevents a sale, it’s how easy or difficult it is to make the purchase.” That’s a challenge for a mobile user, where the screen is tiny, and user interface navigation can be tedious.
Ringtone provider Phunkyphones has already adopted Bango’s Fingerprint, and with many other mobile content providers looking for ways to increase revenues, there are sure to be others. © IT-Analysis.com
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By
technicool on May 18th, 2006
Posted in Market Trends | Comments Off
Telephia reveals increase in US mobile game downloads
by Paul Loughrey 16/05/2006 15:56
8.2 million mobile games bought in March
Mobile industry performance analyst Telephia has revealed a surge in the purchase of mobile games from US consumers, which reached 8.2 million in March and has climbed by 53 per cent since the start of the year.
The Telephia survey monitored almost 35,000 mobile phone bills from US consumers, further extending its analysis to measure the performance and market share of key mobile publishers and the popularity of specific game titles.
According to the survey, EA Mobile leads the way with 30 per cent of overall market revenue, followed by I-play with 8.2 per cent, Paris-based Gameloft with 8 per cent and Namco with 7.7 per cent.
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The bottom rung of the top five publishers was taken up by Hands-On Mobile and Glu Mobile, generating 6.2 and 5.3 per cent of market revenue respectively. The remainder of the top ten publishers - accounting for 75 per cent of market revenue for mobile games for the quarter - includes THQ Wireless, Oasys Mobile, Sony Pictures Mobile, and Mobliss.
Telephia has also detailed the top five most popular games for the quarter in terms of revenue share - EA’s Tetris leads with 5.2 percent, followed by Tetris Deluxe (3.6 per cent), Bejeweled (2.6 per cent), Jamdat Mahjong (2.2 per cent) and Ms Pac-Man (2 per cent).
Kanishka Agarwal, VP of new products at Telephia, commented: “The true measure of performance for a publisher or a game title is the revenue it drives from purchases. Measuring the industry’s performance based on downloads alone is irresponsible and misleading, especially given the extent of free trials in this rapidly growing industry.”
Agarwal noted that almost 12 per cent of game downloads were free, with tremendous variability between different publishers. Telephia maintains that, due to limitations of survey respondents’ recall abilities, analysis of actual telephone bill activity it essential in order to provide accurate measurements of performance and market share.
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By
Administrator on May 18th, 2006
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picturephoning.com: AT&T & MobiTV offer live TV to Wi-Fi hotspot users
AT&T & MobiTV offer live TV to Wi-Fi hotspot users
mobitv.jpg AT&T announced Wednesday that it’s working with MobiTV, which provides mobile video programming to cell phones, to deliver live TV to its Wi-Fi hotspot networks across the country. News.com reports.
“The service will enable AT&T customers to view live television on their laptops or other Wi-Fi enabled devices while connected to one of AT&T’s Wi-Fi hot spots. MobiTV’s service, which includes 15 channels of news, sports, entertainment and full-length music videos, will be available this month at nearly 7,000 AT&T Wi-Fi hot spots.
AT&T operates about 11,000 hot spots nationwide in airports, coffee shops and book stores. MobiTV already has deals with cellular operators, Cingular Wireless and Sprint Nextel, to offer TV on cell phones.”
emily | 08:16 AM | TV on Cell Phones | trackback (0) | del.icio.us | Technorati search results for this Entry
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Administrator on May 12th, 2006
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By Tim Lohman, CRN (Mobile & Wireless)
The digitalisation of music is having a profound impact on the way the music
industry, telcos and mobile handset manufacturers do business.
Speaking at a CeBIT (www.cebit.com) forum on the impact of digital music,
Sony’s Gavin Parry said that after initially being caught off guard by the
download rush, digital music was now becoming a major income stream.
For Sony BMG Australia (www.sonybmg.com), digital song and true tone ring
tone downloads were now accounting for seven to 10 percent of revenues, he
said. In the US this was around 15 percent and in Asia more like 25 percent.
ITunes, once perceived as a threat to the company because of its allegiance
to digital music, was now the company’s eight largest retailer, Parry said.
The way in which music companies now signed on and marketed their artists
was also changing with the move to digital music, he said.
“We now ask whether an artist is CD- or download- or ring tone-biased and
that changes how we launch an artist,” Perry said. “It’s no longer a matter
of putting two singles then an album out. Now we might work with a mobile
phone handset company on a promotion, and then put an album on the market.”
With ring tones now often outselling CD single sales in Australia, digital
music was also transforming the telecommunications market and providing new
opportunities as the local market reached 100 percent mobile phone
saturation, Optus director products and services, Chris Lane, said.
“We are implementing our ADSL2 network and have launched our 3G service so
downloading a music track now a realistic proposition,” he said.
Motorola (www.motorola.com) marketing head, Neil Stewart, said digital music
and the hardware demands it placed on phones provided a major opportunity
for vendors as well as telcos.
“Phones now have stereo Bluetooth, a couple of GB of storage via SD cards
and big screens - all of that in two years is a massive increase,” he said.
“If anyone has the right to claim the ultimate in mobility and music, it’s
the mobile phone industry.”
Optus’ (www.optus.com.au) Lane said telcos and record companies now needed
to analyse their digital music sales models in order to avoid customer bill
shock brought on by combined content and data costs.
“We’re not as good as we need to be [around billing] and that is something
we are looking at as it is in our interest to get people to use this stuff,”
he said.
One possible solution would be to look at subscription-based models used in
other markets, Lane said. This involved near unlimited content downloads,
for a fixed fee and period of use - usually a month.
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Administrator on May 11th, 2006
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MobileTechNews - Nokia’s next generation of mobile games
Nokia’s next generation of mobile games
Posted: 10-May-2006 [Source: Nokia]
Los Angeles — Nokia showcases its first range of next generation mobile games at the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Visitors to the Nokia N-Gage booth are the first to experience demos of the new games coming to a range of Nokia Nseries multimedia computers and other Nokia S60 devices, including: Creatures of the Deep, ONE, Pocket Aces, Pro Series Golf, Space Impact and System Rush: Evolution.
“Nokia is redefining current mobile games benchmarks by offering top quality games on a range of devices,” says Gregg Sauter, director of games publishing, Nokia. “Whether you have a few seconds to make a catch in Creatures of the Deep or a few minutes to fight to the top in ONE, we make it easy and convenient to get and play great quality games on your Nokia device.”
All Nokia N-Gage games for the next generation platform have been designed specifically for mobile devices, where multiplayer gaming and community gaming features via the N-Gage Arena come as standard.
In addition to showcasing the first set of next generation mobile games on a range of Nokia devices, the Nokia N-Gage booth will feature previously announced games such as Mile High Pinball, Habbo Islands and Shadow-Born. The new games line-up includes:
Creatures of the Deep
Creatures of the Deep takes you on a fishing adventure like no other. Travel through some of the world’s most exotic angler destinations, cast your line and catch boatloads of fish, sea creatures, and underwater items to store in your virtual live-well. The single player career mode will challenge you with dozens of quests as you freely roam the expansive fantasy and real-world fishing destinations. Sense the subtle bites on your lure with vibration feedback. Also, E3 visitors are invited to take part in the “Catch the N-Gage Fish” contest for the chance to win a 6-night/4-day fishing package for two at the Crocodile Bay Resort in Costa Rica. ONE - Who’s Next?
In 2004, ONE set the standard for graphics performance in mobile games. Developed by Digital Legends Entertainment, ONE now brings the global fighting community and Nokia Nseries multimedia computers together. The sequel shown at E3 2006 features more advanced graphics, including real-time reflections, light glow and game play at 30 frames per second. Controls and playability are also pushing the boundaries, including adaptable controls and all new scenarios, some designed for landscape mode gaming. Pocket Aces: Texas Hold’em
Nokia ups the ante with a mobile version of this Sin City staple - Pocket Aces: Texas Hold’em. This poker game in your pocket lets you wager, raise the stakes and bluff your way to the top, or hit rock bottom - against friends and strangers alike. Single player and multiplayer Pocket Aces offers online tournaments, online head-to-head match ups, and rankings. Winnings in Pocket Aces have real value; players create their own gambler identity and use their winnings to customize their fully 3D avatar. In addition, the avatar learns the user’s poker strategies, and eventually becomes capable of playing on it’s own!
Pro Series Golf
Do you have what it takes to compete on Pinehurst No. 2? Want to tee up alongside the historic views at the links of Doonbeg? Play Pro Series Golf, the most expansive multiplayer-mobile professional golf game ever, where you can challenge your friends or golfers around the world via the N-Gage Arena. Play as one of six professional golfers including Sergio Garcia, KJ Choi, Retief Goosen, Annika Sorenstam, Colin Montgomerie and Casey Wittenberg, and drive your way to victory.
Space Impact
This addictive Nokia arcade franchise flies to the next generation. You can customize your fighter with various weapons and battle more than 30 unique enemies, including explosive ballistic cannons and deadly energy leeches, while navigating across 10 action-packed levels. Dodge enemy projectiles to increase your power meter, or unleash devastating combo attacks. Win the missions to earn money and buy upgrades between battles. More than 30 different ship parts can be used to trick out your Skyblade. Collect extra upgrades by completing missions, or acquire exclusive power-ups from the N-Gage Arena.
System Rush: Evolution
Chase, shoot and fly your way to freedom in Nokia’s most distinctive futuristic interactive 3D racing game sequel. System Rush: Evolution - the latest and most visually stunning racing game to appear on a mobile device takes place in an authoritarian planet-wide “lock down”, where players are pitted against new network defenses and hacker bosses. The player possesses a new form of experimental technology to shatter the 10 newly installed network “firewalls” and prove to the corrupt governments that the flow of information will never be halted. Our hero is ‘hardwired’ into the system, effectively becoming a part of the network.
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Administrator on May 11th, 2006
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MobileTechNews - Mobile Game Market growing rapidly
Mobile Game Market growing rapidly
Posted: 10-May-2006 [Source: Telephia]
[Wireless consumers purchased more than 8.2 million games in March reports Telephia.]
San Francisco, E3 Expo 2006 — Mobile game sales continue to show strong performance during the first quarter of 2006, with wireless consumers buying more than 8.2 million games on their phones in March, up 53 percent from 5.4 million in January 2006 (see Table 1). The number of unique mobile game buyers also jumped significantly, surging 44 percent from nearly 3.5 million in January to five million in March.
The Telephia Mobile Game Report shows that EA Mobile, I-Play, Gameloft, Namco, Hands-On Mobile, Glu Mobile, THQ Wireless, Oasys Mobile, Sony Pictures Mobile, and Mobliss were the top 10 revenue generators, accounting for 75 percent of mobile game industry revenue.
“The true measure of performance for a publisher or a game title is the revenue it drives from purchases,” said Kanishka Agarwal, Vice President of New Products, Telephia. “Measuring the industry’s performance based on downloads alone is irresponsible and misleading, especially given the extent of free trials in this rapidly growing industry.”
“During the first quarter of the year, nearly 12 percent of all game downloads were free, with extreme variability from one publisher to another. For example, 49 percent of Glu Mobile’s downloads were free of charge, while Hands-On Mobile had less than one percent of its downloads for free,” added Agarwal.
Telephia is the only provider of detailed mobile content audience and revenue measurement directly from the bills of an opt-in panel of nearly 35,000 mobile consumers, which sets it apart from other market research firms.
Telephia’s Q1 2006 Mobile Game Report ranks Tetris (5.2%), Tetris Deluxe (3.6%), Bejeweled (2.6%), JAMDAT Mahjong (2.2%), and Ms. Pac-Man (2.0%) as the top five mobile game titles in terms of revenue share.
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