Addicted to Games on Your Mobile Phone?

Kevin Foong of Courthauld Investments says you are not alone. With mobile phone subscription predictions by the ITU exceeding two billion by 2007, the mobile phone will become the world’s ubiquitous personal device if it isn’t already. But playing games on your mobile phone? Ever since Nokia put the game Snake on its handsets in 1997, this small but suddenly rapidly growing industry is fast becoming the next new wireless opportunity after polyphonic ringtones.

(PRWEB) October 17, 2005 -- Kevin Foong of Courthauld Investments says you are not alone. With mobile phone subscription predictions by the ITU exceeding two billion by 2007, the mobile phone will become the world’s ubiquitous personal device if it isn’t already. But playing games on your mobile phone? Ever since Nokia put the game Snake on its handsets in 1997, this small but suddenly rapidly growing industry is fast becoming the next new wireless opportunity after polyphonic ringtones.

This space known variously as wireless entertainment or mobile gaming was reported to be a $110 and $70 million business in Europe and the US respectively in 2003 by Instat and Screendigest. Unbeknownst to many investors, this market in 2003 was a staggering $850 million in Japan and South Korea. Driven by improvements in mobile handsets and vastly superior networks in these nations, carriers are serving up more games of increasing complexity to a subscriber population that is already open to making content purchases over their mobile phones on third generation mobile networks. While Europe and the US are currently laggards, the combined market opportunity is predicted to be in excess of $2.4 billion by 2008, far outstripping what appears to be a saturated Japanese and South Korean market that is expected to grow to $1.1 billion by 2008.

Today, mobile games are relatively simple. The most popular games remain the classics like Pac Man and Galaxy, card and trivia games as well as driving games on the newer handset models which are easy to learn and play. However the game genres are fast multiplying. With graphics currently modeled in 2D, there is only so much that can be done, this is set to change. Handset manufacturers are planning to release more powerful handsets that can render graphics in 3D by 2007, at which point, games developers will really have a field day with what they can offer the market. Game development and publishing companies such as Jamdat (www.jamdat.com) and Gameloft (www.gameloft.com) have listed on the NASDAQ to take advantage of the trends.

Just as a counterpoint to the more techie games available on mobile phones, wireless game publishers like Counts Media (www.countsmedia.com), a specialist in a genre called Alternate Reality Games, make use of old school technologies like voicemail and SMS to create community-based adventure games. Plot-based treasure hunts or mystery whodunits can be played over a period of time and offer a truly immersive mixed-reality experience, some might say even obsessive and addictive game play, according to Michael Counts the founder of the New York based start-up. This is an interesting twist on the traditional. While traditional gaming has been trying to making the fantasy gaming environment more realistic, companies like Counts Media are making reality more fantastical.

Whatever the model, Courthauld Investments is well placed with our in house expertise to take advantage of developments in the wireless entertainment space. Our investors can expect Courthauld to reap a significant proportion of our future returns from this space.

Kevin Foong is senior partner at Courthauld Investments.

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