iPhone Titles Now 10% of North American Mobile Game Market
By Jason Ankeny
New platforms including Apple's iPhone, Nokia's N-Gage and Google's Android will galvanize the growth of the mobile gaming market according to a new report issued by media research firm Screen Digest, which notes that Apple alone accounted for $100 million in gaming revenues in the second half of 2008, translating to 10 percent of the North American mobile games segment. While the operator-distributed mobile games market increased more than 50 percent in 2004 and 2005, growth will fall to just 7 percent in 2009--Screen Digest contends that new smartphone platforms will pick up the slack, although games for new platforms represented only 15 percent of mobile games revenues in North America and Europe during 2008.
Screen Digest cites Apple's combination of appealing hardware, large developer community and easy-to-use retail environment as the keys to its lead in the mobile gaming sector, adding that for major publishers, the greatest impact of the iPhone and App Store is not the additional revenues generated via game sales but rather the overall effect of the App Store's business model on the wider mobile games market. Screen Digest credits the App Store for increasing awareness of mobile games and for persuading some network operators to lower their revenue shares and build their own application stores.
"At the moment Apple is out in front in terms of user experience, range of content and in generating consumer and developer interest in mobile games for its devices," said Screen Digest research analyst Jack Kent in a prepared statement. "While the market for mobile games on the App Store is strong, iPhone users still only account for a tiny proportion of the market. In Q4 2008, iPhone shipments made up less than 2 percent of total handset shipments. Handset manufacturers and network operators currently adopt a ‘one store for all' approach although platform-specific and on-device stores stand the best chance of success, as far as mobile games are concerned." [FierceMobileContent]
SMS to Garner 83% of All Mobile Messaging Revenues through 2013
SMS will continue to maintain its lead as the highest revenue generator across all messaging categories, providing global service revenues of $177 billion in 2013. But in a recent report from ABI Research, regional differences will determine the success of messaging expansion into the Web, advertising, and the incorporation of mobile messaging within social networking media.
“Innovative companies are exploring opportunities for expanding mobile messaging access to Web sites as well as targeting customers with content and ads,” says principal analyst Dan Shey. “To be successful with these enhanced services, companies that supply mobile messaging products and services must understand the regional distributions for customer type, payment preferences, message delivery method, and usage.”
For instance, developed regions of North America and Europe have the highest messaging ARPUs, and send the most messages from the computer to the mobile device using IM; Asia-Pacific subscribers sign up for the most SMS alert services; and Latin Americans are heavy SMS users, but prefer pay-as-you-go for all messaging services.
Additionally, these regional differences will cause established messaging suppliers to reevaluate their business models.
“Device vendors and messaging platform suppliers serving the global market will have to manage across markets where growth is king – and other markets where product differentiation is king,” continues Shey. “This is a great time for smaller companies to develop new products and services individually and in partnerships to serve the niche needs of a region or country.” [ABI Research]
LG Has Sold 7 Million Touchscreen Phones by End Q2
LG Electronics says that it had sold 7 million touchscreen based mobile phones by the end of the second quarter. This comes just five quarters after LG launched its first full touchscreen handset, the Prada Phone by LG.
Of LG’s touch-based phones, the Viewty, a 5 megapixel camera phone, is its top seller, surpassing 2 million units. Runners up include Venus, based around LG’s intuitive touch-sensitive InteractPad, and Voyager, the first handset to incorporate both a full touchscreen and a QWERTY keyboard. These phones sold 1.6 and 1.3 million units respectively.
Increasing sales of touchscreen phones were a strong driver for LG’s overall profits. The average selling price of the 7 million touchscreen phones that LG sold was US$530. Especially important to LG’s overall success were high sales of premium models including Viewty, Voyager and Venus in both Europe and North America.
The company also says that the growth of touchscreen phone sales also played an important role in advancing its brand equity. The company’s brand recognition in the UK soared to 91.4 percent in 2007 versus 80 percent in 2005, according to internal research measuring unaided brand awareness. During the same period in the USA, where LG launched a number of touchscreen phones including Voyager, Venus and Vu, LG’s brand recognition rose to 83.1 percent from 65.1 percent.
Future Growth Expected
“We were a true pioneer in touchscreen phones, applying for a total of 49 patents while developing the Prada Phone by LG,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President & CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “From the beginning we have worked to create phones that are extremely easy to use despite their myriad features. This is why our touchscreen phones have been so well received around the world. As the market for touchscreen phones continues to grow we will also continue our research in this area to create even more innovative products.”
According to a recent study by Strategy Analytics, the global touchscreen handset market will reach 125 million units by 2010, a more than four-fold increase of 2007’s 30 million units. This is why LG Electronics’ leadership in touchscreen phones is so important and is a key to the company’s future success. [Cellular News]
Clearwire Expects 30 Million Subs by 2017
By Sue Marek
Clearwire executives told investors this morning that the "new" Clearwire will have 30 million customers and will generate $17.5 billion in annual revenue by 2017. Scott Richardson, Clearwire chief strategy officer, said that Clearwire subscribers will use a mixture of fixed and mobile voice and data services.
In May, the new Clearwire was formed by Sprint and the existing Clearwire, along with $3.2 billion in financing from Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Intel, Google, Bright House Networks and Trilogy Equity Partners. Clearwire CEO Benjamin Wolff assured investors that the new Clearwire will not be controlled by Sprint. The carrier will have seven of the 13 seats on the Clearwire board but one of those seats must be an independent director.
In addition, Wolff provided more details on how companies such as Sprint, Comcast and others will resell Clearwire's service to subscribers. [FierceWireless]
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