Mobile Gaming Comes Of Age

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http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/844493.cms

R SUBRAMANYAM

BANGALORE: The mobile gaming market in India is on an upsurge with cellular service providers claiming a huge increase in game downloads. Mobile service operators say that the Indian mobile user, like his western counterpart, is turning into a gaming enthusiast.

Indians traditionally have not been an electronic gaming populace. Barring personal computer-based games, consumers have not been exposed to console gaming devices in a big way. The discovery of mobile handsets as an entertainment medium, say industry watchers, addresses this latent need.

The popularity of mobile games is also being aided by the greater availability of feature-rich mobile handsets at affordable prices, and the roll of out GPRS (general packet radio service) by GSM (global system of mobile communication) operators.

Mr Jacob Perez, vice president, sales and marketing at Spice Telecom said that there is an appreciable growth for value-added services, of which games is an important component. The availability of Java-enabled wireless phones is enabling game downloads at a frenzied rate.

While service providers are not willing to give a break up of the number of subscribers who download games, many said that youth form a large portion of the user base. CDMA mobile service provider Reliance Infocomm, however, said that a large section of subscribers across all age groups are avid gamers.

Mr Mahesh Prasad, president, application solutions group, Reliance Infocomm said that all handsets, barring the Motorola brand, which Reliance offers, permit game downloads. Reliance now offers over 50 games and will extend it further he said.

Analysts are of the view that the mobile gaming industry, while remaining a niche market, will continue its rise as a key contributor to wireless data usage and revenues. In-Stat/MDR, the technology market research firm in a recent report estimates that by 2009, mobile gaming services in the US will generate $1.8 billion annually, or approximately 4.4% of total wireless revenues.

Additionally, by 2009, 78.6 million wireless subscribers in the US will play mobile games, and gaming downloads will increase more than tenfold from 2003 levels.

At present 6.5% of US wireless subscribers are extremely or very interested in purchasing mobile gaming services.

Mobile handset makers said that consumers keen on mobile gaming choose handsets with colour displays, camera-phone and multimedia capabilities. Mr Kunal Ahooja, country head, Samsung India said that handsets that Samsung now offers come Java enabled with polyphonic sounds, rich colours and graphics.

The company will soon launch a Samsung fan club portal which will enable its subscribers to download multimedia rich contents. The number of handphone gamers in the country is growing he said.

Considering the over 35 million mobile user base in the country, gaming application is expected to be a major market for mobile service providers and content developers.