TELECOMS & MOBILE
Casual gamers to drive m-gaming market
20-06-2006
by Ciara O'Brien
The mobile games industry is set to develop further, growing to almost USD17 billion in global revenues by 2011, a new report has claimed.
The report, from Juniper Research, claims that the mobile gaming market, including subscription and downloads, will rise from USD3.1 billion in 2006 to USD17 billion in 20011, an increase that will produce a cumulative revenue stream of almost USD57 billion over the next six years.
Once again, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to continue to be the star performer. The region has dominated the market from the very beginning, and is expected to account for some 38 percent of cumulative revenues from 2006 to 2011. Europe is expected to contribute some 31 percent, with North America making up 22 percent and the rest of the world accounting for 9 percent.
The Juniper Research report identified a coming of age for mobile games, which have traditionally been eclipsed by console and PC games.
"I think the mobile games industry has at last found its identity, and it is a strong one," said Bruce Gibson, research director at Juniper Research. "There is a real demand for mobile entertainment and games are at the very heart of it."
The most cutting edge technology will focus on 3D and multiplayer games, but casual gamers are expected to show the greatest growth. The proportion of female games players is also expected to grow.
"The casual games sector is going to be the market driver, even though it may not be at the leading edge of mobile games technology. Casual games make most use of the inherent advantages of the mobile platform. People want to fill 'dead time' with easy to use, but fun games. This is the same in just about every culture."
This latest report indicates the pace at which the market is developing. A report by Informa Telecoms and Media, published in 2005, estimates that the global mobile gaming industry would be worth USD11.2 billion by 2010.
The Informa report identified downloaded mobile games as the largest sector of the market, contributing some two-thirds of total global revenues over the coming years, while online multiplayer traffic is also expected to grow, generating 20.5 percent of total global revenues.
However, the report also highlighted that the industry would have to work to encourage mass-market adoption of mobile games, with only 15.2 percent of all mobile subscribers globally expected to download and play a mobile game by 2010.
Creating successful email surveys: Denise Cox of email specialist Newsweaver argues that you can tap into your readers' likes or dislikes by surveying them.
