Mobile Entertainment March_Issue 61

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FOR EVERYONE IN MOBILE CONTENT

MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT

MARCH 2010 ISSUE 61 WWW.MOBILE-ENT.BIZ

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CONTENTS MARCH 2010 | ISSUE 61

GAMES SPECIAL ISSUE

GATECRASHED

12 STATE OF PLAY The advent of iPhone and Android has turned mobile gaming on its head. ME visited the Mobile Games Forum to find out exactly how.

FEATURE

FEATURE

Days after Mobile World Congress ended and all those expensive stands got dragged onto the avenue to be smashed to bits, the GSMA revealed that attendance was up a little on last year.

There was some scepticism at the 49,000 figure, but the FIRA seemed pretty busy to us.

You have to wonder what that vast army of mobile delegates made of MWC 2010. I’d wager a good proportion of them were wildly excited.

And a certain number were scared shitless.

Without doubt, this was a watershed show.

Most people we spoke to agreed that it was low key in terms of announcements: no new phones from Nokia, a bunch of solid but identikit touchscreens from Samsung and Sony Ericsson, and the unveiling of a vaguely confusing operator venture called the Wholesale Applications Community. What exactly was that all about?

Well, no doubt WAC was prompted by the fact that all the action at MWC came (subliminally)

It’s an old truism that we overestimate the short-term effects of technological change and underestimate the long-term impact.

The VoIP and IM panic five years ago passed when it became clear that GSM and SMS were safe.

Well, they’re not now.

11 FLASH ALIGHT

14 PUSH THE BUTTON

Browser-based gaming flared briefly in the WAP days. Can Flash bring it back?

What are the big gameplay ideas and business models making the industry so excited?

INSIDE THIS ISSUE 5 OPINIONS

22 APPOINTMENTS

Let the ranting reign! ME gives airtime to its team and industry insiders for the letting off of steam.

Who’s arriving? And who are they passing on the way out? All the big moves documented here.

9 MONETISING MOBILE

24 SHOWS

ME’s new event in May is all about making money from apps. You should go. It’ll be brilliant.

What happens in Madras stays in Madras. You wouldn’t want the wife to know about that Vindaloo.

16 WE HAVE CONTACT

26 CHARTS

After years of multiplayer and networked gaming hype, it seems gamers are finding each other at last.

Go here to find out which bikini babe is currently topping the wallpaper charts.

20 MOBILE WORLD MEMORIES

33 DISCONTENT

All the talking points from the world’s biggest telco show. And a Japanese man flicking his eyes sideways.

If you’re included here looking ridiculous, we mean it as a compliment. It’s better than being ignored.

29 MARKETPLACE YOUR GUIDE TO THE MOBILE CONTENT INDUSTRY

www.mobile-ent.biz

from Google and Apple. They didn’t bother to actually book stands, but these two gatecrashers seem to be finally making good their promise to give the ancient regime an almighty kick up the backhaul. How many delegates did you see with an iPhone or Android pressed to their ear? Add them to Blackberry users and you’ve got nearly everyone. How fast things change.

It’s an old truism that we overestimate the short-term effects of technological change and underestimate the long-term impact. I remember the panic about VoIP and IM five years ago, but it passed when it became clear that GSM and SMS were safe. Well, they’re not now. The momentum is such around Android that you can genuinely picture a future in which people buy SIM-free handsets, sync them with Google services and use wi-fi to connect most of the time.

This needn’t worry us, in our little content corner. But for other sectors of the market it must be bloody terrifying.

Stuart O’Brien Stuart.Obrien@intentmedia.co.uk Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 3

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ho is a Mon ste ne e d b w k tisin y M ind g M o ob of ile con bile En fe ter ren tai ce nm en t

Wednesday, May 26th • BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London

How to make mobile apps pay their way

Conference & Dinner from ÂŁ199

An ME Event

For sponsorship information contact: Katy Grant on 01992 535647 or email katy.grant@intentmedia.co.uk For delegate booking information contact: Jodie Holdway on 01992 535647 or email jodie.holdway@intentmedia.co.uk

Gold Sponsor

Gold Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

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24 per cent

1.2bn

$15

Bugger the recession. This is the growth expected by content execs in MEF’s Annual Business Confidence Index.

...mobiles sold last year, says Gartner – and Nokia sold 441m of them for market share of 36.4 per cent.

The price of the ultra-cheap Vodafone 150, launched by the operator to target consumers in India, Turkey and Africa.

OPINION

IN BRIEF TapMetrics tapped up

Android alert MWC was hijacked by Android this year, with Google dominating the conversation and the device line-up. It’s a good bet to eclipse iPhone, says Brad Rees… he Mobile World Congress – home turf for the world’s operators – was invaded by Androids this year. The show surrendered the keynote slot to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who proclaimed that the mobile universe was now sufficiently evolved to accept higher life forms into its ecosystem.

Imagine the perplexity of the mobile vets in the audience when Mr Schmidt put mobile at the heart of the search giant’s future plans of cosmological domination.

He outlined how his ubergeeks are working on the Mobile First project and how they will AdMob into the Google mobile offer. But generally, Schmidt rejoiced at the arrival of the fully-converged mobile device, with the computing power, interconnectivity and cloud capability to change things forever.

“The phone is where these three all interconnect. If you don’t use the power of the cloud you will fail,” he said.

The cloud. It’s the perfect subject for any techy dinner party, although in this context its mention may have killed some of the appetites in the auditorium.

Schmidt name-checked Facebook, Spotify and Google as the catalysts of the stepchange. There was little mention of network operators, except for a reference to new ‘Google phones’ that will be coming out soon on Orange and T-Mobile.

What a capitulation by the operators. Just three years ago Vodafone’s then global CEO, Arun Sarin, portended that the sector must be careful lest Google “eat the mobile industry’s lunch”. And with his successor Vittorio Colao disclosing one in four of the handsets on the Vodafone network was now ‘smart’ and that smartphone shipments had risen by almost 40 per cent year-on-year in its most recent quarter, you can see why Google has got its knife and fork out.

In no time at all, Android is beginning to dominate the device space. New handsets appear almost weekly, and nearly all have some form of wi-fi capability, giving them the ability to bypass the mobile network. HTC is

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now the premiere iClone manufacturer. Its Desire handset may sound like a 1990s’ disco diva from Runcorn, but it is actually one of two hero phones the Taiwanese manufacturer is parading for Google. Eric Schmidt mentions the need for computing power and that’s precisely what the Desire delivers with a whopping 1Ghz of CPU. The laptop I’m writing this article on doesn’t boast that.

The UI has been improved on this device too, mostly due to the Leap View function, which enables users to make all seven homescreens visible with one touchscreen swipe. It’s like the ability to view your visited websites in one window, using Google Chrome.

In my opinion, the HTC Desire, Nexus One and others have the potential to surpass the influence of the iPhone. While the iPhone is great for the elevator pitch in the lift with the boss, crucially, Apple does not and will not support Adobe Flash on its iPhone or iPad products. From an advertising and creative perspective, this has meant that a colony of iPhone app specialists have formed and are also winning most of the pitches for mobile microsites in Agencyland.

But in the online world, the language of big budget agency creative is Adobe Flash, in all of its guises, and this is precisely where Android hits the sweet spot. Even though Nokia has been offering full internet phones for a while now, it’s the Google proposition that resonates longer.

So Google is busting a move into mobile in a big way and the operators have real cause to be concerned about future revenues. Google has powerful friends and not necessarily only in this galaxy. The NASA Space Act Agreement in 2006 formally established a relationship with Google to work together on “challenging technical problems, ranging from large-scale data management and massively distributed computing, to humancomputer interfaces”.

The operators are about to get a great big rocket up their arses.

Brad Rees is CEO of Mediacells

The HTC Desire, Nexus One and others have the potential to surpass the influence of the iPhone. While the iPhone is great for the elevator pitch in the lift with the boss, Apple does not and will not support Adobe Flash on its products.

www.mobile-ent.biz

Millennial Media has bought mobile analytics startup TapMetrics for an undisclosed sum. It’s the latest example of consolidation in the ad market. Analytics firms Flurry and Pinch Media recently merged, while in the advertising space, Apple bought Quattro Wireless, and Google is in the process of buying AdMob.

GoPayforit re-named UK-based billing specialist GoPayforit has re-branded as ImpulsePay. The firm says the change marks a new stage for the company after the success of its Payforit-based service. This is used by app developers, blogs, WAP sites and websites to charge for digital and physical goods.

ImpulsePay’s one-click service works on any handset in the UK and across all networks.

PocketGear pockets Handango There’s a major new player in the browser-based app store space.

PocketGear bought rival Handango, creating what it claims will be the largest independent, cross-platform app shop. The new entity will have a catalogue of more than 140,000 apps for Android, Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm, Linux and Java handsets, with more than 32,000 developer partners. The newly enlarged PocketGear will go head-to-head with companies like GetJar.

Domains of the day DRM's not dead, but it is friendlier than before. UK-based mobile video specialist Saffron Digital is now pushing its 'domainbased' DRM services and has launched a new wesbite to market the technology. The idea is to enable content that has been downloaded to a mobile to then be viewable on PCs, laptops, video players, set-top boxes and TVs. Saffron says domain-based DRM technology provides a way for end-users to name their devices, and include them in their ‘domain’, so that content downloaded to their mobile can be played on authorised devices.

MobiTV viewing surge Live events, breaking news and entertainment have pushed MobiTV's daily audiences to new highs. The firm's TV services have experienced a 49 per cent increase in daily viewing minutes over the last 12 months. MobiTV says the recent Tiger Woods 'I'm sorry' press conference was responsible for a three fold jump in MobiTV viewership on channels airing the event: ABC News NOW, FOX News, MSNBC and others.

Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 5

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100 million

Nothing

80,000

The total number of Facebook mobile users – and it’s added 35 million of them in the last six months

The price Nokia is charging for its Ovi Maps SatNav product: 1.4m downloads in ten days

Google’s operator killing Nexus One handset topped 80,000 sales in its first month, says Flurry

IN BRIEF

OPINION

Muzicall raises E2.1 million Euro ringback tone pioneer Muzicall has secure additional funds for its European expansion, bagging E2.1million funding from new investor Ventech. The new funding comes four months after Muzicall announced its second round of fundraising, which saw the company raise E9 million from new and existing investors. Muzicall says it plans to accelerate its availability of ringback tones to European mobile users via its RBT.4.ALL platform.

English channel Despite a cool reaction from some quarters, the GSMA’s Mobile Media Metrics has the potential to make mobile a popular choice among media buyers, says Tim Green...

Tik Tok Tap Tap Tapulous sold 100,000 Ke$ha tracks in two weeks inside its Tap Tap Revenge game. The iPhone developer and in-app billing pioneer has seen paid music downloads take off since it went free just before Christmas, according to its CEO Bart Decrem. He said: “At a time when a number one hit maybe sells a couple of million copies, to move 100,000 copies through our game shows that in-app commerce is real.”

Sprint runs to GetJar GetJar’s remarkable progress continues – now it’s teamed up with giant US operator Sprint. The deal sees Sprint bundle access to the GetJar app store for millions of feature phone subscribers. A link to the GetJar catalogue is now available on the Sprint portal for most Sprint handsets, including feature phones and smartphones running the BlackBerry and Windows Mobile OS. GetJar has already managed more than 750 million downloads and provides more than 60,000 apps.

Tanla’s sing thing Billing specialist Tanla has diversified into the D2C app space with its new Sing Intune product.

This iPhone app tests a user’s ability to sing along with original recordings by artists such as Christina Aguilera, Boy George, Tina Turner, Simon Le Bon and Suggs. It’s an interesting move for Tanla, which is better known for providing billing, messaging and marketing services. But this product will provide a showcase for the firm’s ability to build communities around apps, and to monetise them.

AdMob-style Sofialys France’s Sofialys is targeting operators with a platform that builds AdMobstyle exchanges that complement inhouse sales operations. It calls the new service ADITIC, and says it gives operators the opportunity to monetise all or part of their inventory electronically and therefore accelerate their sales rate. Basically, it will mop up any inventory not sold by in-house teams or partners.

6 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

he GSMA is, almost by implication, a great big lumbering dinosaur. Because it looks after the interests of vast pachyderm-like operators, it doesn’t exactly move fast. But, like an Argentinosaurus (the largest of the dinosaurs – I know, I’ve got the Top Trumps), when the GSMA makes a move it’s generally worth knowing about. And so it was, last month, that the trade body unveiled its first ever Mobile Media Metrics service.

It only took three years.

It’s easy to scoff at the prep time. But you can only guess at the amount of cajoling, horse-trading, canoodling and forms of intercourse that were observed in getting O2, Vodafone, Orange, TMobile and 3UK to agree to the project.

So, what did they sign up to? Well, the GSMA – and its partner comScore – describes the service a census-level solution for mobile media reporting.

Still none the wiser?

Okay, try this. The project lets brands and agencies see which how many visitors mobile sites are attracting, and then provides basic information about the demographic complexion of those visitors. This info is anonymised in the interests of privacy, but it covers all UK networks, so it’s an excellent basis on which to make judgements about where to place ads.

Such was the excitement around the announcement at London’s IMAX cinema that the event was oversubscribed, and the GSMA had to arrange extra sessions. This didn’t prevent a certain negativity in the following days, with observers complaining about the limited scope of the service: no SMS, no MMS, no video and (most significant of all) no apps.

For the latter, data will have to be drawn from OEM proprietors of the app stores (Apple, Nokia, BlackBerry et al) that the operators have no control over. This is where companies like AdMob and Millennial are historically strong – and will only continue to be so under their powerful new owners.

So you can see the naysayers’ point. I first heard about the concept three years ago and came up with a headline of ‘media packs for mobile’ to describe it. I was

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quite proud of that at the time. It seemed to me a succinct description of an idea that was often couched in tech speak, but which essentially described a channel through which ad buyers could pay for access to cross-operator mobile users by text, browser, video and even voice.

The service announced last month clearly went nowhere near that.

Luckily for me, I was able to grab comScore’s Paul Goode straight after the announcement, who assured me that this is just stage one of the project. Plans to incorporate these other mobile channels are in the pipeline. But more important – and this wasn’t properly addressed in the official announcement – the grand plan for this service is for it to move from planning to buying to targeting.

In other words, the current version lets buyers plan campaigns, the second stage lets them buy their inventory (through authorised intermediaries), while the third lets them isolate and advertise to only the users relevant to them.

Fancy that? Imagine being a trendy menswear brand and never wasting spend on females or men over 45?

For the moment, this project is restricted to the UK. However, I’m assured that other countries are watching closely. In the dream scenario they pile on board at the double, but we all know that’s not going to happen.

And anyway, I don’t see how the concept can really work in a pre-pay market, so that would preclude many of the emerging territories. A shame, when you think of the cultural significance of mobile in regions like Africa and Brazil.

If GSMA and comScore can make this happen, then they have not only made mobile a genuine media channel, they’ve made it the best one.

This is quite a claim, but think about it: where else can you ringfence your target audience like this? You can’t stop men looking at your billboard ad for lipstick.

You can’t prevent women watching your TV ad for aftershave either.

Unless you put algebra in it, perhaps. They hate that.

Tim Green is ME’s executive editor

If GSMA and comScore can make this happen, then they have not only made mobile a genuine media channel, they’ve made it the best one. Where else can you ringfence your target audience like this?

www.mobile-ent.biz

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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

PhonepayPlus Think regulation of phone-paid content is something that happens to other people? Think again…

ver heard of PhonepayPlus? How about ICSTIS, our previous name? I wouldn’t be offended if the majority of readers hadn’t. We’re the regulator of premium rate services that are charged to consumers’ mobile and landline accounts or against pre-pay credit (as opposed to, say, credit card, iTunes or Google Checkout).

We have a Code of Practice that protects consumers from misleading promotions, poor pricing information and the few dodgy services that can damage the reputation of the rest. There are stiff penalties for those that fall foul of the Code.

Fines of up to £250,000 and a bar on services, companies and individuals from working in the market are a nasty and effective deterrent. We’ve recently stepped up our enforcement action – in 2009 we issued £5 million in fines, more in sorrow than anger of course.

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If you’re a provider of content that’s sold via mobile phones or on 09 numbers you may be wondering how on earth you’ve not come across us before. It’s probably because we have typically focussed on upstream companies – mainly the aggregators and network operators you contract with.

However, all that’s set to change. We’re currently drafting a new Code of Practice. The headline change is that we’re shifting some responsibility away from the middle-men and towards the content provider. You – not the aggregator – will soon be responsible for what you sell to a consumer, how you promote it and how you charge for it.

The new Code will also mean that everyone providing a premium rate service will need to register with us first. No one will contract with you if you can not provide them with a PhonepayPlus registration number.

Content providers now need to be aware of PhonepayPlus’ new Code of Practice.

We will soon be consulting on these proposed changes. They will affect you more than ever before so we urge you to engage with us to make sure they’re the right rules, enforced properly. Even if you don’t want to contribute to the debate, you should start figuring out what it means for your business.

We’re happy to talk to anyone in the premium rate industry about their concerns and their ideas so please get in touch with me or a colleague and let us know what you think.

Now’s the time to help shape the debate.

We’re all too aware that the wrong regulation stunts growth and prevents innovative services finding their way to consumers. We don’t want that to happen which is why we need you to help us get it right.

Paul Whiteing, Chief Executive, PhonepayPlus. newcode@phonepayplus.org.uk Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 7

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CONFERENCE FOCUS

Wednesday, 26th May • BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London

Making apps pay How much can you make from in-app ads? What’s the best micro-billing business model? How can you help users find your app? These and other questions will be answered at ME’s Monetising Mobile conference in May…

Monetising Mobile: How to make apps pay their way Wednesday May 26th 2010 BAFTA • 195 Piccadilly • London W1 Ticket price: £199 + VAT (before April 1st) £229 plus VAT thereafter.

pple has delivered over three billion apps to iPhone and iPod Touch users. It’s nothing less than the content revolution we’ve been waiting for these last ten years. That’s got to be great news, right?

Not necessarily.

Consumers and content providers alike are struggling with the sheer volume of apps available: users can’t always find the products they want, while publishers are struggling with a market dominated by free apps and a nascent advertising ecosystem.

But there are plenty of clever remedies out there. Which is why ME is delighted to present a special conference dedicated to apps and widgets – and specifically how to make money from them.

Monestising Mobile is based on the same set-up that worked so successfully for last year’s Mobile Music Now event, and the London Games Conference presented by ME’s sister publication, MCV. There’ll be a late afternoon start, a series of short keynotes and panel discussions and a buffet dinner at the end to give every delegate the chance to network.

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Our sponsors

Answers please!

Gold Partner: GetJar GetJar is the world’s biggest browser-based app store. There have been over 750 million downloads from the store, which offers more than 50,000 mini-applications for thousands of different handsets.

Here are some of the questions we’ll be asking – and answering – at the Monetising Mobile conference: How do branded apps fit within consumer-facing marketing campaigns?

What’s the best way to use micropayments?

Gold Partner: Metaflow Metaflow supplies publishers, operators and service providers with the tools to discover,

Which prices work best on app subscriptions?

request, receive and process content in a cost-efficient way. Customers include EA Mobile, Namco Europe, Orange, Fox Mobile and many more.

Silver Partner: Bango Bango has been a key player in the mobile payments space since 1999, and is active in apps via its in-app billing and mobile site analytics services.

What are the relative merits of operator and credit card billing?

What is the best price point for your app?

Want to know more?

When is ‘free’ the right price?

How do the various app stores compare?

Which development tools can reduce the cost of app development?

www.mobile-ent.biz

Any questions about attending, speaking or sponsoring should be addressed to the following, or call +44 (0)1992 535 646 Nice venue, eh? Now imagine it filled with friendly people that can help you make money

Content: Tim.Green@intentmedia.co.uk Sponsorship: Katy.Grant@intentmedia.co.uk Delegate Bookings: Jodie.Holdway@intentmedia.co.uk

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FLASH GAMES

Flash: saviour of the universe?

It’s the format that few speak about, but Flash Lite has made one Japanese entrepreneur a billionaire already, says Kooky Panda’s Richard Robinson. Can it do the same for others...? mid the constant iPhone/iStore love fest in the mainstream press and the recent Adobe bashing evidenced by the lack of Flash support by the iPad, a rather exciting news item has passed by largely unnoticed: Forbes Magazine crowned Yoshikazu Tanaka the world’s first mobile gaming billionaire.

Tanaka is the founder and CEO of JASDAQ-listed Gree in Tokyo, which creates socially connected Flash Lite mobile games for the Japanese market.

After the mention of both ‘Japan’ and ‘Flash Lite’ in the first paragraph, there may now be half as many readers of this second paragraph. Sure, Japan is like visiting the future, but no mobile services from Planet Japan have ever successfully taken root outside its exotic ecosystem. Japanese phones are proprietary devices and the i-mode experiment in other markets was a disaster. And don’t get us started on Flash Lite – we’ve been waiting for that train since before the RAZR phone was launched.

While it is true that the Japanese mobile market is fairly closed, the real takeaway from the Gree success story is the viability and attractiveness of free-to-play, socially connected mobile games with virtual items as a business model. Gree has operating margins of 57 per cent and was ranked by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu as the fastest growing tech company in Japan, with over 2,600 per cent revenue growth over the past three years. It has 15 million users, up from eight million a year ago. Yet it’s not even Japan’s biggest social games firm – that’s Mixi, with 18 million users.

Gree has set itself apart from the crowd by focusing on easy, fun gaming. New subscribers get a manga-style avatar in underwear. They can then shop for everything from clothes to accessories that can be used in games based on virtual fishing, gardening and pets. And an

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estimated 80 per cent of its revenues come from these online accessories.

Like Tanaka-san’s net worth, Flash Lite has also crept past the billion mark largely unnoticed. After the Adobe acquisition of Macromedia, Flash Lite was made free for OEMs to install in mid-2008. Since that time, hundreds of millions of devices with Flash Lite pre-installed have been shipped, bringing the addressable marker to well over a billion.

While Adobe is now moving to support Flash 10.1 on higher end phones, there will be a Flash Lite opportunity for years to come. Why? Because it’s not smartphone users who are the ideal target for sociallyconnected gaming. They may be cash rich, but most are time poor. Instead, it’s the lowend users with free time and some disposable income who are the ideal target, and are much more likely to have a compatible device.

Richard Robinson, chairman of Kooky Panda (inset top)

In Japan, Flash Lite enjoys 97 per cent penetration and there’s a vibrant, flat-rate 3G user base. But the opportunity exists in other regions too. A browser-based Flash Lite gaming experience can reach hundreds of millions of users. By comparison, WAP provides a flatter user experience while J2ME, though highly functional, poses enormous porting challenges. The iPhone and Android platforms provide compelling environments, but the addressable market is much smaller.

Japanese companies like Gree, Mixi and DeNA are all opening up to allow game developers to place their games on their platforms. Flash is coming of age, so don’t miss out.

Richard Robinson is chairman of Kooky Panda, which develops Flash Lite games from Beijing and is backed by Japanese VC, Infinity Venture Partners. Email: Richard.Robinson@KookyPanda.com Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 11

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MOBILE GAMES FORUM

State of play Last month’s Mobile Games Forum conference offered a snapshot of the mobile games industry in 2010. Stuart Dredge was there… hree years ago, the Mobile Games Forum was a miserable affair, through no fault of its organisers. The industry was in the doldrums thanks to flattening sales and fragmentation hassles, with many of the most talented developers talking openly about exiting the market.

In 2010, it’s a different story. iPhone and its App Store have reinvigorated the sector at every level, including developers and publishers, but also handset makers and operators who are shaking up their own services and making games a priority.

The opportunities and challenges were chewed over at this year’s MGF, but three areas in particular stood out as defining the mobile games industry in 2010.

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LIFE BEYOND THE iPHONE 2009 saw a gold-rush mentality around the App Store, with developers dumping J2ME to concentrate on iPhone, while publishers invested in big-budget iPhone titles.

In the process, the App Store became the biggest distribution channel for several major publishers, while making millionaires out of a handful of independent developers.

12 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

However, 2010 has seen a new sobriety emerge based on the bewildering array of products available. “You can spend money, develop a very good title, launch it and then have that title absolutely lost among the pure volume of content that’s out there,” says John Chasey, MD of UK developer FinBlade.

Eric Hobson, CEO at Connect2Media, puts it more bluntly. “The App Store is going to be a killing zone for developers over the next 12 months, as the 98 per cent of developers who don’t make money disappear and die.”

For these reasons, more games firms are planning a serious push onto Android, BlackBerry and other smartphones in 2010.

These app stores are less crowded, downward pricing pressure is less intense, and platform owners are improving their stores and handset capabilities, while courting iPhone developers. This includes operators, who are launching their own app stores and giving games a new priority internally. “You could argue that iPhone has taken those premium customers who’ve always bought content on operator decks to another channel,” says Jess Gwyther, global content development manager at Vodafone Group.

“But all it’s done is made us [operators and handset firms] work together on new devices and services that can create a similar standard for customers who don’t want an iPhone.”

Android Market, BlackBerry App World and Nokia’s Ovi Store will enjoy an influx of rich, high-quality games in 2010. But looking beyond iPhone isn’t just about handsets. Developers who’ve traditionally focused on the mobile space are also investing in porting their games to Facebook, to the recently-launched digital stores for Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS, and even console equivalents Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and WiiWare. iPhone is still the lead platform for many mobile games firms, but it’s no longer the whole story.

Above: Namco president Barry O’Neil, Vodafone Group’s Jess Gwyther and Fishlabs CEO Michael Schade

MARKETING GETS VIRAL Mobile games marketing was simple in the old days. It was a relationship thing – that relationship being operator games managers with the power to guarantee deck placement.

Even PR was an afterthought. Securing sales was about signing brands, and then www.mobile-ent.biz

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MOBILE GAMES FORUM

agreeing co-marketing campaigns to secure slots on portals.

In the App Store world, it’s very different.

“You now have to engage with your customer on a regular, direct basis – you can’t rely on those carrier relationships,” says Barry O’Neill, president of Namco Bandai Networks Europe. “You have to engage on Twitter, and Facebook, and by doing proper marketing. We’re moving from public relations into individual relations.”

That’s a telling comment, one that is amplified by Paul Farley from TAG. “We don’t have to talk to a million people. If we can talk to 20 or 30 people who are passionate about the game, they’ll then take the message about our game to a much wider audience.”

Mobile games has the Web 2.0 bug, with developers and publishers making use of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter while also liaising with games-focused websites and blogs before games are released. All this builds buzz around a title and cuts through the clutter.

We don’t want the consumer deciding the price we sell games at. It should be the publisher and retailer.

THE MOBILE GAMES INDUSTRY IN NUMBERS $540 million US mobile game publisher revenues in 2009 (SNL Kagan)

26,172 Number of iPhone games on the App Store in February (Mobclix)

25 per cent Share of European mobile game buyers for both Nokia and Apple (comScore)

$11.7 billion

THE PRICING QUESTION How much a mobile game should cost is provoking huge debate in 2010. There’s widespread accord that the dive towards 99-cent price points (59p in the UK) is dangerous. It works for indies with a massive hit like Flight Control or Doodle Jump, but not for anyone else.

“We don’t want the consumer deciding the price we sell games at,” says Tony Pearce of Player X. “It should be the publisher and retailer.” This is part of the reason rival app stores, such as BlackBerry App World, are increasingly appealing for publishers; RIM doesn’t allow paid apps to be sold for less than $2.99.

The cat may be out of the bag as far as cheap mobile games go, though, in Western markets. Meanwhile, prices are hardly likely to be higher in emerging markets. “Look at a market like India – 97 per cent of the market is pre-pay,” says Patrick Mork from GetJar. “Those people are not going to pay for content, and if they do, it’ll be cents rather than dollars. We have to reinvent the www.mobile-ent.biz

Global mobile games revenues by 2014 (DFC Intelligence)

8 million Number of mobile gamers in the UK (UK National Gamers Survey)

$450 million Lost iPhone games revenues due to piracy so far (24/7 Wall St)

900 per cent Jump in downloads from iPod touches on Christmas Day (Flurry)

2 million App Store downloads for Flight Control and Doodle Jump games (Firemint/Lima Sky)

$2.5 billion Value of Chinese mobile games market by 2014 (Pyramid Research)

12 Number of console brands in the UK App Store’s Top 20 Grossing Games chart (ME)

business models in mobile, especially around mobile games.”

For this reason, the industry is fascinated by ‘freemium’ models like those seen on Facebook, where games are free to play but make money from advertising and virtual item sales. Apple’s introduction of in-app payments has already spurred some publishers to try the model on the App Store, including ngmoco’s Eliminate Pro, SGN’s Skies of Glory, and Tapulous’ Tap Tap Revenge 3.

Advergames offer another potential model for developers, with Fishlabs already profiting from its free iPhone games for Volkswagen and Barclaycard. “Last year, the revenue we got from ad games was about 30 per cent, and we expect that to increase to 45 per cent this year,” says CEO Michael Schade.

There may be challenges, but the mobile games industry is adopting a glass-half-full approach to the opportunities of the postApp Store era. “We are very bullish about the future of this business, due to the expected proliferation of smartphones and their app stores,” says EA Mobile’s European boss, Luca Pagano. “People who have a smartphone tend to play more games and buy more games.”

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GAME TRENDS 2

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What’s the big idea?

What’s pushing the mobile gamer’s buttons in 2010? Stuart Dredge gives us ten of the best new trends... pple’s iPhone has fuelled an explosion in innovative and original mobile games since the launch of the App Store in July 2008. Indie developers and large publishers alike are stretching their creative muscles, with the effects also starting to be felt on other smartphones.

Here are ten of the current mobile gameplay trends that are defining what titles will be big in 2010.

A

1. SWEET MUSIC With 25 million downloads of its Tap Tap Revenge games, Tapulous has proved that there’s a big appetite for classy music games on iPhone – and that you can sell music downloads to those players within the game itself. Its new racing game, Riddim Ribbon, hopes for similar success. However, there are plenty of rivals trying to follow suit. Appy Entertainment’s Tune Runner and Drop D Studios’ Tap Studio Pro let people play along to the songs stored on their iPhone. Meanwhile, the company behind music app TuneWiki is working on a mobile game called Lyrics Legend based around song lyrics.

14 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

2. ON LOCATION Location-based mobile games are as old as the hills – remember BotFighters? But they’re enjoying a new lease of life on iPhone and other smartphones.

MeanFreePath’s Turf Wars is a social mafia game that lets players claim ‘turf’ in their real-world neighbourhood, while Glu Mobile’s 1000 puts Pokemon and Google Maps into a GPS blender for location-based collecting fun. Nokia also recently delivered on its promise of games tying into its Ovi Maps service with Ovi Maps Racing, which turns your local streets into race-tracks. And while proper augmented reality games are still thin on the ground, AR gaming is expected to be big in the coming months.

3. CONSOLE CAPERS Look at the App Store’s Top Grossing chart, and you’ll see that big console brands are making lots of money on iPhone – especially when they come bearing colons.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and Assassin’s Creed 2: Discovery were sizeable hits for Rockstar Games and Ubisoft respectively, while Activision went one

5

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Lima Sky’s addictive action game Doodle Jump (image 5) and Taito’s Space Invaders Infinity Gene (image 7)

better on the punctuation front with Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies. Meanwhile, EA Mobile has topped the charts with a string of its parent company’s big console franchises, while Gameloft has a nice line in own-IP titles heavily inspired by console classics. Its N.O.V.A. is distinctly Halo-esque, GT Racing Academy is very Gran Turismo, and Blades of Fury IS Soul Calibur.

4. VIRTUAL ITEMS Apple’s launch of in-app payments, plus the whopping great revenues being made on Facebook by firms like Zynga and Playfish, is getting iPhone game developers hot for virtual items. Besides songs, Tapulous is making decent money from avatar clothing in Tap Tap Revenge 3, while EA has started selling themed sets for The Sims 3 at 59p a pop. You can buy a T-Rex skin for Pocket God, a new beach level for Flick Fishing, and download 20 extra levels for I-play’s Paradise Quest puzzler. Some games, like ngmoco’s Eliminate Pro and SGN’s F.A.S.T, are going the whole hog with a freemium model, where the game is free and entirely funded by in-app virtual item purchases. www.mobile-ent.biz

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GAME TRENDS 3

Independent developers and large publishers are creating innovative and effective app games for the mobile market. Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies and iFarm are two of the titles defining gameplay for 2010

9 6 8

5. DOODLE EVERYTHING Heard of Doodle Jump? You can’t avoid it on the App Store. Lima Sky’s addictive action game has been a fixture at the top of the chart ever since its release in March last year. Now it’s spawning a wave of games copying its hand-drawn graphical style – although their developers are making sure potential buyers don’t miss the link. Doodle Bombs, Doodle Army, Doodle Blitz, Doodle Jeep, Doodle Escape... No genre is safe. And while none of these games has hit the commercial heights of their inspiration, it’s clear that the Doodle aesthetic is here to stay – and will likely spread to other mobile and non-mobile platforms.

mobile, as the sales figures for Tetris, PacMan and Space Invaders show. That trend is evolving in two different directions in 2010, though. First, there’s the boom in emulators of old games consoles – either licensed like Manomio’s Commodore 64 and Sega’s upcoming Ultimate Genesis, or unlicensed like the numerous NES and Game Boy emulators available on Android. Other developers are focusing on giving old games an iPhone update. UK firm Revolution Software has released a ‘director’s cut’ of its Broken Sword adventure, while Taito brought a 21st century sheen to Space Invaders Infinity Gene.

6. ‘DOING A FARMVILLE’ We mentioned earlier Zynga’s big Facebook revenues, a large proportion of which are down to its quite literally, barn-storming Farmville social game. It hasn’t gone mobile yet, but there is no shortage of iPhone games trying to make a success of the ideas behind it. iFarm from Playmesh is the closest copy, and it was downloaded one million times in ten days after its release last year. Coming up are TAG Games’ Astro Ranch, which is like Farmville in space, and ngmoco’s We Rule, which is like Farmville with a kingdom rather than a farm.

8. CHECKING IN Social location apps like Foursquare and Gowalla aren’t really games. Instead, they apply game-like elements to location-based social networking, awarding points and achievement badges for people who are out on the town lots. However, bigger than both is Booyah’s MyTown, which recently signed up its one millionth user. It’s like a real-world Monopoly, where people ‘check in’ to locations in their city, but can also buy the virtual versions, upgrade them and charge other players rent. Its success is sure to spawn more imitators in 2010, turning people’s social lives into massively multiplayer gaming experiences.

7. RETRO A-GO-GO Retro games have always been popular on

9. MEET THE TWIN-STICKS A rapidly-growing sub-genre on iPhone is

www.mobile-ent.biz

10

the twin-stick shooter, so named because it involves two virtual joysticks – one each at the bottom left and bottom right of the screen – and lots of shooting. Chillingo’s iDracula showed there was money in it, before the same company’s Minigore proved the point. Now there’s a steady flow, including Guerilla Bob, Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet, Meteor Blitz, MetalWars, Garters and Ghouls... Although originally inspired by console joypads, the twin-stick control system is ideally suited to touchscreen mobile phones – hence its ongoing rise in popularity.

10. BUMS ’N’ BOOBS

The MyTown app from Booyah is proving to be popular among users (image 8), while Tic Tac Boobs shows the seedier side to adult content games

Would you believe it, there is a seedier side to mobile gaming. Still. Even though Apple may be fairly strict when it comes to adult content, that hasn’t stopped a flood of ‘sexy’ – i.e. profoundly unsexy – games from launching on the App Store, usually with self-explanatory titles. Sexy Maid Service is a maid-based dust ‘em up game, while Tic Tac Boobs is just like Tic Tac Toe but with, yes, boobs. Meanwhile, Tehra Dark Warrior is a big-budget 3D action-adventure whose big selling point is the buttocks of its thong-clad heroine. And talking of bottoms, PooPong is, in the words of its App Store blurb: ‘Pong with poop instead of a ball. Plus fart sounds.’

A very proud moment for mobile gaming, we are sure you will all agree.

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SOCIAL GAMING

All together now Recently fierce competition between platform providers has made connected features key to iPhone gaming. Here Stuart Dredge examines those third-party suppliers making waves in the games market... emember the days when every other mobile games conference was focused on multiplayer, fuelled by the ambitions of companies like Exit Games, Terraplay and Ex Machina?

Well, the conferences died away, Exit Games shifted its focus to MMOs and social gaming, Terraplay was swallowed up by End2End and Ex Machina turned its attention to TV-based projects.

But history goes in circles, and now iPhone has spawned a new generation of connected gaming platforms to replace those early innovators.

R

16 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

OpenFeint, Scoreloop and AGON Online are just three of the third-party platforms competing to offer features like online leaderboards, buddy lists, challenges and achievements to iPhone game developers.

Meanwhile, publishers Ngmoco and Chillingo have launched their own platforms – Plus+ and Crystal respectively – which are being made available to their network of developers. Gameloft has, characteristically, opted to keep its connected platform inhouse, with Gameloft Live.

The net result of all this activity is that connected features are increasingly a

Scoreloop offers a variety of features to iPhone developers

necessity for new iPhone games, for small indies and larger publishers alike. US firm Aurora Feint says it’s signed up more than 5,000 registered developers, with more than 1,000 OpenFeint-enabled games already live on the App Store, for example.

The fierce competition means that the actual features of these platforms are increasingly commoditised. No sooner has one platform introduced a new feature, like challenges, than its rivals have patched their offerings to offer it too. There’s little to choose between the various platforms when it comes to basic functionality. Even www.mobile-ent.biz

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SOCIAL GAMING

live multiplayer support, when it comes, will likely be present in all of them.

So how are developers choosing which platform to use for their games? It’s partly about reliability, and how well the platforms scale once they’re being used by millions of gamers. Some of the companies, in particular Scoreloop and Chillingo, are making much of their white-label aspects, where their technology blends into a developer’s game without imposing its own brand.

However, putting this technology inside iPhone games offers more than just connectivity. The social gaming platforms are becoming as much about game discovery – a way for iPhone owners playing one game to find others that let them use their existing profile.

Thus, a platform that’s being used for a big-selling game like Pocket God (OpenFeint) or Parachute Panic (Scoreloop) becomes more appealing to other www.mobile-ent.biz

developers looking to get attention for their games.

Analytics is another area that will be increasingly important for the social games platforms. When players are connecting regularly to post scores or achievements, there is valuable data to be mined for developers. These platforms don’t replace dedicated analytics tools like those provided by Flurry, but as games developers decide which firm to work with, the amount of data they can get back may become more of a selling point.

Finally, there’s the question of how and when these platforms will look beyond iPhone. All the companies are excited about

the iPad, and are ensuring their services will work with games on Apple’s tablet from launch. Aptocore, which makes the AGON Online platform, even released screenshots of its system running on the iPad SDK simulator.

However, Scoreloop recently started supporting Android as well as iPhone, with full cross-platform compatibility allowing people using one handset to challenge friends on the other – assuming the same game is available for both, of course. Aurora Feint founder Jason Citron, didn’t mince his words at the recent Mobile Games Forum on the subject of Android’s failings, but admitted that his company too is preparing to support Google’s OS.

Companies are excited about the iPad and are ensuring their services will work with games on Apple’s tablet from launch.

Chillingo’s Crystal (top) and Aurora Feint’s OpenFeint platforms are delivering new connected options

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MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS

Show progress Forty-nine thousand people went from 200 countries to Mobile World Congress. The Mobile Entertainment team was among them. Here is what we discovered there… f Mobile World Congress 2010 was a play it would have been one of those domestic dramas in which a previously happy family group has its idyll disturbed by an interloper. Think An Inspector Calls, or Six Degrees of Separation. Without doubt, this was the year that the collective fear of Google/Apple turned into tangible reality.

Nearly every delegate had an iPhone, and all the best new devices had Android inside them. You could almost see the axis of power changing before your eyes.

Anyway, with the dust from this year’s show settling, here’s our take on the key trends of Mobile World Congress…

I

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE USER EXPERIENCE Hardware features like GPS, wi-fi and megapixels have been commoditised. UE is everything. Who chooses the interface is an interesting question though. Microsoft won’t let handset partners muck about with the Windows Phone 7 Series UI, yet it’s now ubiquitous on Android.

20 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

GOOGLE IS EVIL? Anyone who saw the Q&A section of CEO Eric Schmidt’s keynote will have seen the suspicion, anger and paranoia directed at Google from some elements of the mobile industry. The more deeply Google gets into the mobile market, the more negativity it is encountering.

APPS TAKE CENTRE STAGE (SORT OF) Developer sessions by the likes of Vodafone, RIM and Google at App Planet were rammed – giving away thousands of Nexus Ones didn’t hurt in the latter’s case.

FUNCTIONAL APPS In 2010, we will see applications becoming more tightly integrated with smartphone interfaces. RIM coined the term ‘Super Apps’ to describe apps that interrogate the inbox, add entries to the calendar, and dig into the contacts. Skype also talked about this idea of being baked into the operating system rather than just existing on the handset as an application.

THE GIGAHERTZ WARS A 1GHz processor in a phone? Qualcomm’s Mark Frankel highlighted the potential for this to turn into an arms race, with handset makers competing to willy-wave in a contest to see who has the fastest processor.

MICROSOFT MAKES WAVES There was a lack of really big news at MWC this year so Windows Phone 7 Series felt like a big deal. It’s a leap on from previous versions, and games developers are particularly excited about the Xbox Live aspect, although Microsoft is keeping details under its hat until next month’s MIX conference.

A new version of Windows Phone (top) stole headlines, while the mobile TV sector was boosted by Qualcomm’s FLO TV player (bottom)

MOBILE ADVERTISING 2.0 The flurry of mergers and buy-outs in the space appeared to have brought the agencies to MWC. There were far more of them than ever before at the FIRA. www.mobile-ent.biz

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MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS

BEST OF THE TECH You don’t go to MWC looking for whacky new phones any more – they all look the same now. But there are some surprising new technologies on show if you look hard enough. Here’s our top six...

THE PUMA PHONE Mobile history is littered with the risible efforts of brands to make phones.

Levi’s, Hummer, Porsche and others – they’ve all tried and failed. But Sagem’s new Puma phone breaks the mould of branded phones by actually being good.

The device has clearly been designed from the ground up by Puma and its partners. It’s not the specs that distinguish it (2.8-inch touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera etc), but the sheer personality in the details. All the icons have a cheery retro look – the MP3 player looks like a vinyl turntable and the alarm is a megaphone. There’s also a sports screen that offers a pedometer, compass, cycling speedo and more. It even has a solar panel.

POWERMAT WIRELESS CHARGING

WHERE IS THE PORN? Remember the first time there was a content hall at 3GSM? The stand imagery was so filthy that there was a warning on the front door. Adult content is barely evident at the show now. There was one stand in hall seven, and Playboy sponsored the MEF party, but that was about it.

MOBILE MUSIC TAKES A BACK-SEAT The biggest music story at Mobile World Congress was Duran Duran’s GSMA awards gig, which shows that music is getting considerably less hype than it did a few years ago. Aspiro and Omnifone apart, there was little musical dimension to the show.

MOBILE TV IS (FINALLY) GETTING SEXIER Fuugo, a mobile TV service from Axel Technologies, aggregates shows from traditional broadcasters, mobile channels and UGC websites, serving them up in a slick touchscreen interface. That was nice, as was Qualcomm’s standalone FLO TV device.

Maybe there’s something on TV for a change.

NOKIA’S BIG GAMBIT It eschewed hall eight for its own space off site, but then it had no new handsets to show.

The Meego OS is intriguing if Intel can deliver and Nokia can build on its N900 with sleeker devices. Overall, not Nokia’s finest hour.

THE DECLINE OF JAVA GAMING Gameloft told ME its Java revenues had suffered in Q4, while Glu admitted the same www.mobile-ent.biz

The flurry of buyouts in the space appeared to have brought ad agencies to MWC. There were far more of them than ever before at the FIRA. in its recent Q4. It’s a transition phase, although not necessarily a flee away from the operators. After all, this year plenty of them will be launching their own application stores supporting Android and other smartphones...

GOING LOCAL The apps thing may be global, but there was lots of talk about smartphone platformowners talent-scouting beyond the West Coast of the US for developers. It was in RIM’s plans to hold BlackBerry roadshows around the world, while leaving behind local community groups after the event.

FEATURE PHONES ARE GETTING SMARTER Apps are a smartphone thing, right? Maybe not, now that app stores are launching platforms that support more affordable feature phones. HTC’s Smart is coming to O2 – it uses Qualcomm’s Brew Mobile platform to provide features that would normally be expected from more expensive handsets.

The issue of battery power and charging never leaves the mobile business. Quite the opposite in fact. Maybe that’s why Powermat got so much attention – and was so controlling (you had to wait to be invited onto the stand).

The firm’s tech can charge most consumer devices (not iPhone, unless you put a special jacket on it) merely by laying them on a special mat. So far, so mildly impressive. What’s far more exciting is the prototype desk, which can charge multiple items at once.

TOUCH FREE SWIPING The touchscreen has transformed the mobile UI. But eyeSight’s eyeCan tech goes further, enabling a hand swipe above the screen to silence an incoming call, navigate between GPS menus, activate the MP3 player and more. Its gesture recognition engine uses the phone’s camera, along with real-time image processing algorithms to track the user’s hand motions and translate them to user actions. EyeSight believes the UI will be good for drivers, for example.

3D SCREENS EyeSight again, this time showing a protype of 3D screen technology that it’s hawking to all the OEMs. It sandwiches a bi-directional layer beneath the main screen to display slightly diverged images. There’s no need for glasses, and the protoype included two cameras so users can take their own 3D pictures. Your ME correspondent can only see through one eye, so we can’t tell you if it’s any good.

AUGMENTED REALITY GAMING Samsung’s Wave handset, based on its Bada OS, won a lot of fans. But those who looked carefully would have been wowed by the embedded AR game – AR Defender, from French developer int13. You have to print out the barcode and then aim the camera at it. The barcode is instantly transformed into a tower that has to be protected from invaders by tilting the screen and pressing fire. AR gaming is unproven commercially, but as far as technology is concerned it’s very impressive.

EYE-CONTROLLED EARPHONES MWC wouldn’t be MWC without something mad from the Japanese. On DoCoMo’s stand there were remote controlled earphones controlled by eye movement. It works by muscle detection and something about positive and negative electrons. It’ll never take off, but we all loved the unintentionally hilarious demo by the inscrutable DoCoMo man in an illfitting suit. He took it wonderfully seriously.

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Sponsored by

RECRUITMENT

MICHAEL BECKER

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Acision’s executive decision Mobile messaging specialist hires Stefano Cantarelli from Ericsson UK as chief technology officer... co-founder of iLoop Mobile. His hiring is part of a major re-organisation that sees the trade association give its four operating regions in Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America and North America more autonomy. He will work in parallel with PAUL BERNEY in EMEA and ROHIT DADWAL in APAC.

Messaging giant Acision has a new CTO. He is STEFANO CANTARELLI, who joins from Ericsson UK where he was VP of networks. Cantarellia was previously CTO at Cable and Wireless and has held directorships at Vodafone UK and Vodafone Italy.

TODD TRAN has returned to the heart of mobile content, landing a senior position with Apple Europe. He’s the new general manager for Europe within Apple’s booming advertising unit. The Cupertino firm, of course, bought Quattro Wireless for $275 million in January. Tran has lots of experience, having held senior positions at Flytxt, Minick and WPP. Former Microsoft/ScreenTonic EMEA sales manager THEO THEODOROU will head up the Apple EMEA sales team.

The Mobile Marketing Association has appointed a new North American head, MICHAEL BECKER, the former 22 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

ISAAC BABBS has joined Qualcomm as general manager of the Qualcomm Services Labs unit. Babbs was previously founder and CEO of the social media firm Tapatap. He also served as VP at Infospace Mobile Games, where he headed the pioneering games-for-prizes division Atlas Studio. iome has appointed MATTHEW KARAS to its board of directors. Karas has held various management roles at companies including ITV, Al Jazeera International and the BBC. Nokia has made JUHA ÄKRÄS its new EBP of human resources. He replaces HALLSTEIN MOERK, who is retiring.

Two senior executives from Twistbox have emerged as founders of a new rich messaging start-up, Bccthis. DAVE WALDMAN and MICHAEL STEUER unveiled the new firm last month. It has been set up to enable users to send secure private messages to selected recipients while

simultaneously sending a general message to a larger audience.

JOSÉ ANTONIO MIJARES is the new SVP of international sales at Interop Technologies, the messaging technology specialist. The former Nortel executive will focus on business development in the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) and Asia regions.

ANNE DE KERCKHOVE has joined Reed MIDEM as director of entertainment. In this newly-created post, de Kerckhove will oversee Reed MIDEM’s MIPTV, MIPCOM, MIPJunior and MIPDOC TV events and its music industry tradeshow, MIDEM. Mobile Messenger’s recruitment drive continues with the hiring of LARRY ROBINER as VP of CRM channel sales.

The mobile solutions provider has also promoted AMY DUDMAN to SVP of strategic operations. She will spearhead the integration of m-Qube, which was recently acquired by Mobile Messenger.

VLADIMIR MALUGIN is the new marketing director for EMEA at HTC.

Nice gig for the former marcomms exec at Eastman Kodak, since HTC is growing so fast. He will be responsible for HTC’s overall brand, marketing and communications across EMEA. MIKE MCHALE has joined app tester DeviceAnywhere as MD of EMEA sales.

The addition further expands the firm’s EMEA footprint, and maintains an expansion that has seen DeviceAnywhere’s team double in size over the past year.

BBC Worldwide has snaffled ROBERT NASHAK from EA to be its new LAbased executive VP of digital entertainment. He will oversee a move into gaming for the commercial arm of the BBC. Prior to working at EA, Nashak was VP and general manager of Yahoo! Games.

OWEN VAN NATTA has vacated the top job at MySpace after just one year. The ex-CEO will be replaced by MIKE JONES and JASON HIRSCHHORN as co-presidents. It’s not great news for the social network, which has been eclipsed

by Facebook and is struggling to regain the heights it scaled after its purchase

by News Corp in 2005 for $580 million.

Does your firm have a position to fill? If so, you should advertise on the appointments page that’s read by everyone in the content business: yes, this one. We also offer a complementary online service. Either way, every exec in the business will be reading about your vacancy. Contact Katy Grant at Katy.Grant@intentmedia.co.uk or call +44 (0)1992 535647 for more info.

www.mobile-ent.biz

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Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 23

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EVENTS

2010 Calendar

This year’s diary is full to bursting with must-see industry events. Which ones are you taking your expense account to...?

MARCH 2010 March 8th The Mobile Research Conference 2010 Swissotel The Howard, London, UK www.mobileresearchconference.com MRC is the only industry event dedicated to mobile surveys, connecting scientific research and best corporate practice. It comprises workshops and presentations from industry experts. It is aimed at scientific and corporate researchers, business developers and executives from marketing and HR disciplines.

March 9th-12th GDC 2010 San Francisco, US www.gdconf.com The world’s biggest games developer event returns to San Francisco, bringing together the community to share techniques, make connections and showcase new technology.

March 23rd-25th CTIA Wireless 2010 Las Vegas Convention Center, US www.ctiawireless.com It’s back to the monorail, the slot machines and the grinding soulless despair of Las Vegas for CTIA 2010’s spring show. Some adore Vegas, others think the conference centre is the best place to be – a location to escape the knuckle-dragging epsilons, and check out shiny new gadgets instead. CTIA attracts 1,200 exhibitors and over 40,000 delegates.

APRIL 2010 April 7th-8th China Mobile Internet 2010 Summit Beijing, China www.china-mis.com This summit is supported by China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom – and is also endorsed by the MMA and the MEF. April 14th-Apr 15th 2010 MMA Forum Singapore Grand Copthorne Waterfront, Singapore http://forum.mmaglobal.com The MMA’s global roadshow for mobile marketing stops in Asia Pac. This event brings together attendees from agencies, brands, carriers and other members of the 24 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

The China Mobile Internet 2010 Summit (April 7th-8th) should attract lots of attention from those who can afford to jet to China for a few days. It has the backing of all three Chinese operators and features some very big hitters among the speakers. Who can resist the allure of 700 million mobile subscribers? global mobile marketing ecosystem. It features a variety of presentations discussing the latest technology developments, case studies, and innovative ways of using the mobile channel for marketing. Tickets range from $75 for a single workshop to $995 for a Gold Package (early bird price). Speakers include Brian Stoller of Mindshare Asia Pacific and Hungama’s Neeraj Roy.

UPCOMING...

MAY 2010

April 7th-8th China Mobile Internet 2010 Summit

May 26th Monetising Mobile: how to make apps pay their way Bafta, London www.mobile-ent.biz A major new event presented by Mobile Entertainment, putting the emphasis on commercial solutions in a conference devoted to the apps revolution. There’ll be keynotes, panel sessions and networking in an afternoon/evening affair. Subjects under discussion include advertising, payments, discovery and more.

March 8th The Mobile Research Conference 2010 March 9th-12th GDC 2010 March 23rd-25th CTIA Wireless 2010

April 14th-15th 2010 MMA Forum May 26th Monetising Mobile June 22nd-23rd Mobile Entertainment Markets October 6th-8th CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment 2010

JUNE 2010 June 22nd-23rd Mobile Entertainment Markets Park Plaza Victoria, London, UK www.m-e-f.org MEM will once again bring together the world’s content players for a two-day conference. The 2009 show attracted over 500 attendees, a 26 per cent increase from 2008. Only date and venue details are available at present, but ME will be the first to hear when speakers and the agenda are confirmed.

OCTOBER 2010 October 6th-8th CTIA Wireless and Entertainment 2010 San Francisco, USA The autumn CTIA event (or should that be ‘fall’?) is traditionally more content-focused than its spring counterpart, and also a little smaller. It’s back to San Fran this year, so we can all wear flowers in our hair... www.mobile-ent.biz

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Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 25

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CHARTS

Charts

Check here every month for the best selling games, ringtones and mobile apps from across the market...

RINGTONES

TAGGING

RINGTONES.COM TOP EURO MUSIC TONES, FEBRUARY SONG 1 DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’ 2 DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’ 3 BAD ROMANCE 4 REPLAY 5 FIREFLIES 6 BELLA’S LULLABY 7 RIVERSIDE 8 ONE TIME 9 STARSTRUKK 10 MEET ME HALFWAY SOURCE: MOBILESTREAMS

SHAZAM TAGGING, FEBRUARY ARTIST JOURNEY GLEE CAST LADY GAGA IYAZ OWL CITY TWILIGHT SIDNEY SAMSON JUSTIN BIEBER 30H3 FEAT. KATY PERRY BLACK EYED PEAS

RINGTONES

RINGTONES.COM TOP EURO FUNTONES, FEBRUARY SONG 1 GIGGETY GIGGETY GIGGETY GOO 2 THIS IS ALEXANDER, PICK UP THE PHONE 3 24 THEME TUNE 4 ALL RIGHT, WHAT’S OCCURRING 5 WHO THE HELL’S RINGING AT THIS TIME 6 HOLY CRAP LOIS, A TEXT 7 YOU HAVE A MEERKAT MESSAGE 8 I WON’T LIE TO YOU, YOU GOTTA TEXT 9 SPIDER PIG SONG 10 SIMPLES! SOURCE: MOBILESTREAMS

ARTIST FAMILY GUY MEERKAT TV SERIES GAVIN AND STACEY PETER KAY FAMILY GUY MEERKAT NESSA THE SIMPSONS HOMER MEERKAT

RINGTONES

SONG 1 BEDROCK 2 MONEY TO BLOW 3 HOW LOW 4 NEED YOU NOW 5 I GET IT IN 6 BAD ROMANCE 7 DA DA DA 8 BEST I EVER HAD 9 HARD 10 PARTY IN THE U.S.A SOURCE: FLYCELL

ARTIST YOUNG MONEY FT. LLOYD BIRDMAN LUDACRIS LADY ANTEBELLUM OMARION LADY GAGA LIL WAYNE DRAKE RIHANNA FT. YOUNG JEEZY MILEY CYRUS

MUSIC

MELODI SOUTH AFRICA REALTONE SOUNDALIKES, FEBRUARY SONG 1 SEXY CHICK 2 RUN THIS TOWN 3 GOOD GIRLS GO BAD 4 DOWN 5 I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS 6 I CAN TRANSFORM YA 7 FIGHT FOR THIS LOVE 8 HOTEL ROOM SERVICE 9 PARTY IN THE USA 10 3 SOURCE: MELODI MEDIA

ARTIST DAVID GUETTA FT AKON JAY-Z FT RIHANNA COBRA STARSHIP JAY SEAN FT LIL WAYNE MARIAH CAREY CHRIS BROWN CHERYL COLE PITBULL MILEY CYRUS BRITNEY SPEARS

FONESTARZ TOP VIDEOS, FEBRUARY ARTIST BLACK EYED PEAS BLACK EYED PEAS CHERYL COLE LADY GAGA KINGS OF LEON ALEXANDRA BURKE JOURNEY RIHANNA IYAZ JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

FLYCELL US TOP DOWNLOAD HANDSETS, FEBRUARY MODEL 1 GT365 (NEON) 2 GR500 (XENON) 3 CU920/CU915/VU 4 VX9200 (ENV3) 5 SGH-A887 (SOLSTICE) 6 SGH-A877 (IMPRESSION) 7 VX11000 (ENV TOUCH) 8 8330 (CURVE) 9 (WILD CARD) M1000 10 8520 (CURVE) SOURCE: FLYCELL

VENDOR LG LG LG LG SAMSUNG SAMSUNG LG RIM (BLACKBERRY) KYOCERA RIM (BLACKBERRY)

MELODI USA REALTONE SOUNDALIKES, FEBRUARY SONG 1 TIK TOK 2 BAD ROMANCE 3 FIREFLIES 4 EMPIRE STATE OF MIND 5 HARD 6 WATCHYA SAY 7 REPLAY 8 YOU BELONG WITH ME 9 3 10 DOWN SOURCE: MELODI MEDIA

ARTIST KESHA LADY GAGA OWL CITY JAY-Z FT ALICIA KEYS RIHANNA FT JEEZY JASON DERULO IYAZ TAYLOR SWIFT BRITNEY SPEARS JAY SEAN FT LIL WAYNE

FONESTARZ TOP WALLPAPERS, FEBRUARY

VIDEOS 1 LUCY PINDER 2 SEXY CAM 3 YOUTUBE – BABY HULK 4 BLACK EYED PEAS – MEET ME HALFWAY 5 CHERYL COLE – FIGHT FOR THIS LOVE 6 30H!3 FT. KATY PERRY – STARSTRUKK 7 IYAZ – REPLAY 8 SIDNEY SAMPSON – RIVERSIDE (LET’S GO) 9 JOURNEY – DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’ 10 YOUTUBE – LAUGHING BABY SOURCE: FONESTARZ

ARTISTS & VIDEO

GAMES

BINBIT LATIN AMERICA TOP ARTISTS, FEBRUARY

JAMSTER TOP GAMES, FEBRUARY GAME 1 JEWEL QUEST III WORLD ADVENTURE 2 THE SIMPSONS ARCADE 3 TATTOO TYCOON 4 WOMEN’S MURDER CLUB 5 CRAZY PENGUIN PARTY 6 THE SIMS 3 7 GO! GO! ISLAND RESCUE! 8 EA SPORTS FOOTBALL MANAGER 9 BEJEWELED TWIST 10 TETRIS SOURCE: JAMSTER

FLYCELL US TOP RINGTONES, FEBRUARY

VIDEOS & WALLPAPERS

JAMSTER TOP RINGTONES, FEBRUARY

SONG 1 I GOTTA FEELING 2 MEET ME HALFWAY 3 FIGHT FOR THIS LOVE 4 BAD ROMANCE 5 SEX ON FIRE 6 BAD BOYS 7 DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’ 8 RUSSIAN ROULETTE 9 REPLAY 10 LOVE SEX AND MAGIC SOURCE: JAMSTER

SONG/ARTIST FIREFLIES OWL CITY 2 PASS OUT TINIE TEMPAH 3 DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’ JOURNEY 4 WON’T GO QUIETLY EXAMPLE 5 EMPIRE STATE OF MIND ALICIA KEYS FT. JAY-Z 6 ONE SHOT JLS 7 STAY TOO LONG PLAN B 8 DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’ GLEE CAST 9 MANY OF HORROR BIFFY CLYRO 10 REPLAY IYAZ SOURCE: SHAZAM 1

ARTISTS & HANDSETS

PUBLISHER EA MOBILE EA MOBILE HANDYGAMES I-PLAY DIGITAL CHOCOLATE EA MOBILE CONNECT2MEDIA EA MOBILE POPCAP EA MOBILE

26 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

SONG 1 FRUTA PROHIBIDA 2 DIME SI TE VAS CON EL 3 MENTIRAS PIADOSAS 4 NO ME DOY POR VENCIDO 5 LOCA 6 THE SIMPSONS THEME 7 TU ADIOS NO MATA 8 TE AMO TANTO 9 SEXO, PUDOR Y LAGRIMAS 10 MI DELIRIO SOURCE: BINBIT

ARTIST DRAGON & COBALLERO NIGGA ALEJANDRA GUZMAN LUIS FONSI ALEKS SYNTEK GREEN DAY INTOCABLE NIGGA ALEKS SYNTEK ANAHI

WALLPAPER 1 HOT MARIA 2 SKULL STORM 3 TIGER STORM 4 PINK DOLPHIN 5 BUTTERFLY SWIRL 6 PLAYBOY FLAMES 7 LOVE PULSE 8 TROPICAL FISH 9 DOUBLE LOVE HEARTS 10 BLING DICE SOURCE: FONESTARZ

BINBIT LATIN AMERICA TOP VIDEOS, FEBRUARY SONG 1 SI NO TE HUBIERAS IDO 2 LABIOS COMPARTIDOS 3 TE AMO 4 UNO, DOS, TRES 5 EL REY (EN VIVO) 6 A LABIO DULCE 7 LIKE A VIRGIN 8 FRUTA PROHIBIDA 9 CORAZON PARTIO 10 AMIGA MIA SOURCE: BINBIT

ARTIST MANA MANA ALEXANDER ACHA MOTEL MANA ISKANDER MADONNA DRAGON & CABELLERO ALEJANDRO SANZ ALEJANDRO SANZ

www.mobile-ent.biz

27 ME61 Playphone Charts

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Page 1

Title

Publisher

Title

Artist

Title

Category

1

Wheel of Fortune Road Trip

Sony Pictures

1

I Gotta Feeling

Black Eyed Peas

1

ESPN Winter X Games 2010

ESPN

2

Deal or No Deal

Mobliss

2

Vanilla Twilight

Owl City

2

Kiss Me Thru Da Phone

Pink Frosty

3

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Glu

3

ESPN Winter X Games Tone ESPN

3

Man In The Mirror

Mobile Streams

4

JONAS!

Disney

4

Drop It Low

Ester Dean (ft. Chris Brown)

4

Blame It

Pink Frosty

5

Crash Bandicoot: Mutant Island

Glu

5

Baby By Me

50 Cent

5

Snarling Wolf

Versaly

6

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Glu

6

Breakup

Mario (ft. Gucci Mane)

6

Earth Map

Convisual

7

Jenga

I-play

7

Meet Me Halfway

Black Eyed Peas

7

Betty Boop In Love

Airborne

8

Wheel of Fortune Deluxe

Sony Pictures

8

Funhouse

P!nk

8

ESPN Extreme Snowboarder

ESPN

9

Family Feud

Glu

9

Hoedown Throwdown

Miley Cyrus

10

Ultimate Spider-Man

Hands On

10

I Can Transform Ya

Chris Brown (ft. Lil Wayne & Swizz Beatz)

11

2008 Weakest Link

I-play

11

Do I

12

Mercenaries2

I-play

12

Bless the Broken Road

9

Omnitrix

Cartoon Network

10

Cool Fire-Breathing Dragon

Versaly

Luke Bryan

11

Snake Glow

Mobile Streams

Rascal Flatts

12

Catus Rocker

Tokidoki Convisual

13

Stolen in 60 seconds

UFT

13

TiK ToK

Ke$ha

13

Neon Ying Yang

14

PBA速 Bowling

Concrete Software

14

Gangsta Luv

Snoop Dogg

14

Red Dethklok Logo

Adult Swim

15

Dance Dance Dance - Lollipop

Artificial Life

15

Sweet Dreams

Beyonce

15

Optimus Prime Star

Glu

16

Diamond Islands

Digital Chocolate

16

Forever

Drake (ft. Kanye, Lil Wayne, Eminem)

16

Kansas Elite

Mobile Streams

17

Poker Pop

Glu

17

Tuff

Venture Bros.

17

Orbital Drop

Baeg Tobar

18

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground

Infusio

18

Party In The U.S.A.

Miley Cyrus

18

Optimus Prime Transformation

Glu

19

Gem Hunters

Digital Chocolate

19

You Belong With Me

Taylor Swift

19

Haters Make Us Famous

Artificial Life

20 Bless the Broken Road

Rascal Flatts

20 Butterfly 2010

20 Red Bull Air Racing Championship

Pink Frosty Fulep

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CHARTS

BPLAY SMARTPHONE ENTERTAINMENT CHARTS THRU FEBRUARY 15, 2010 TOP 20 THEMES

TOP 20 GAMES SMARTPHONE ENTERTAINMENT CHARTS THRU FEBRUARY 15, 2010

SMARTPHONE ENTERTAINMENT CHARTS THRU FEBRUARY 15, 2010 TITLE

CATEGORY

PUBLISHER

TITLE

CATEGORY

PUBLISHER

1

IBERRY 2.0 TODAY PLUS

TODAY PLUS

MAGMIC

1

BEJEWELED

PUZZLE

EA

2

EXPLORER 2.0

NEXT GEN

MAGMIC

2

TEXAS HOLD'EM KING 3

CARDS/CASINO

MAGMIC

3

IWIDGETS

NEXT GEN

MAGMIC

3

RISK

STRATEGY/BOARD

EA

4

IBERRY EDGE TODAY PLUS

TODAY PLUS

MAGMIC

4

TETRIS

PUZZLE

EA

5

FLOWBERRY

NEXT GEN

MAGMIC

5

MAHJONG SOLITAIRE

CARDS/CASINO

MAGMIC

6

PINK MAGIC

ANIMATED

MAGMIC

6

GUITAR HERO 5

ACTION/ARCADE

GLU

7

SALTWATER

ANIMATED

MAGMIC

7

COD: MODERN WARFARE 2

ACTION/ARCADE

GLU

8

TINKER BELL

DISNEY

DISNEY

8

CHUZZLE™

PUZZLE

POPCAP GAMES

9

GLITTER MOTION

ANIMATED

MAGMIC

9

PARTY ISLAND™: SOLITAIRE MULTIPACK CARDS/CASINO

10

IBERRY PSYCHEDELIC

ICON

MAGMIC

10

THE SIMS 3

ACTION/ARCADE

EA

11

VALENTINE PINK ZEN

ZEN

MAGMIC

11

JEWEL QUEST III

PUZZLE

EA

12

TINKER BELL PINK

DISNEY

DISNEY

12

PHASE 10

CARDS/CASINO

MAGMIC/FUNDEX

13

IBERRY PINK TODAY PLUS

TODAY PLUS

MAGMIC

13

TETRIS POP

PUZZLE

EA

14

IBERRY PINK ZEN

ZEN

MAGMIC

14

NO LIMIT CASINO 12 PACK

CARDS/CASINO

DIGITAL CHOCOLATE

15

SOLAR SLIDESHOW

ROTATING BACKGROUND

MAGMIC

15

SOLITAIRE LEGENDS

CARDS/CASINO

MAGMIC

16

BEACHES OF THE WORLD

ROTATING BACKGROUND

MAGMIC

16

SUDOKU

PUZZLE

MAGMIC POPCAP GAMES

DIGITAL CHOCOLATE

17

IBERRY 2.0

ICON

MAGMIC

17

BOOKWORM

PUZZLE

18

WATERFALL

ANIMATED

MAGMIC

18

DOOM 2 RPG

ACTION/ARCADE

EA

19

IBERRY 2.0 ZEN

ZEN

MAGMIC

19

SPIDER SOLITAIRE

CARDS/CASINO

MAGMIC

20

IBERRY NEO ZEN

ZEN

MAGMIC

20

SPADES

CARDS/CASINO

MAGMIC

SOURCE: MAGMIC GAMES - BPLAY

28 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

SOURCE: MAGMIC GAMES - BPLAY

www.mobile-ent.biz

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MOBILE MARKETPLACE

MOBILEMARKETPLACEINDEX ADMODA 08707 661 992 www.admoda.com

KATINA 078 3366 4075 http://katinaleisure.com

ELITE 01543 268 826 www.elite-systems.co.uk

LOGIC 3 01923 471 000 www.logic3.com

IMPULSE PAY 0207 099 2450 www.impulsepay.com

PARTNERTRANS 01753 247731 www.partnertrans.com

INLOGIC +421 904 628 889 www.inlogic.eu

SMART SMS +966 149 403 46 www.smartsms.com.sa

INMOBI +44 (0)20 7470 7175 http://inmobi.com

SPLASH 0870 934 2666 www.splashnews.com

The Mobile Marketplace offers a complete marketing package of print, online and editorial visibility, allowing companies to maintain contact with readers each month without the cost of full display advertising.

The Mobile Marketplace and its associated online version has also been designed to offer readers a directory of all products and services in the content industry. A presence in this section ensures that your company’s details are easily found, keeping you one step ahead of your competitors.

The standard package includes: 1/4 page advert in each issue Regular editorial coverage in the dedicated column Company details listed in the online directory with web link and marketplace index

To get your company featured here contact

WWW.MOBILE-ENT.BIZ/MARKETPLACE PUBLISHER

www.mobile-ent.biz

Katy.Grant@intentmedia.co.uk t: +44 (0) 1992 535647 MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDER

Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 29

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MOBILE MARKETPLACE DISTRIBUTION

AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

LOCALISATION

30 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

www.mobile-ent.biz

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MOBILE MARKETPLACE VIDEO/PICTURE AGGREGATION

MARKETPLACE NEWS

Game A Day for consumers Games publisher Connect2Media, Tokyo-based consultancy Interarrows and developer DigitalCity Business have teamed up to launch a Flash games service.

Game A Day will offer consumers regular new Flash games by subscription.

It’s based on the model made popular in Japan, but is relatively untested with Western gamers.

Interarrows will source games from the Japanese market, while DigitalCity

Business will make full use of its strong links with Japan to manage the service. Connect2Media will handle the marketing.

“The Game A Day offering allows us to deliver fun new games in a totally fresh way and reach the ‘Holy Grail’ of consumers who would never have previously purchased entertainment content on their mobiles,” said Connect2Media CEO Eric Hobson.

Admoda serves 3bn ads a month

MOBILE ADVERTISING

UK company Admoda, which also runs the adult-oriented Adultmoda service, says it recorded 3.3 billion ad requests last month.

It adds that both units have more deals in in the pipeline.

Terry Jackson, CEO of Admoda, said: “We are particularly excited about this growth because it is all high quality traffic – we actually reject about 70 per cent of all publishers who sign up with us.

“Our strategy is to allow only publishers with good quality sites and apps onto our network. Our advertisers therefore run ads only on great sites, which translates into

converting traffic. Our 90 per cent rebook rate from advertisers is testimony to the quality and volume, of traffic we provide.”

The company revised the look and feel of its websites last month, and added a company blog.

Apple bans adult apps Apple’s decision to clamp down on ‘adult’ apps, but keep faith with bigname brands has received a withering response from ‘indies’ like Katina Leisure’s Steve Shields.

“We lost 150,000 unique Affiliate visitors a day from a single client that had all of its Apple apps pulled with no warning,” he said.

He added that the loss is a small dent in Katina’s overall business, while pointing out that it’s still making money from iPhone users via its browser-based premium rate WAP services. Should Apple clamp down on that, there really would be problems.

“Apple accounts for around six per cent of our traffic. If it suddenly barred access to all erotic material, it would be much more serious for us.”

Julia Dimambro, founder of mobile adult publisher Cherrysauce, echoed

these comments:“What’s the difference between a bikini or lingerie-clad Playboy model, and one that doesn’t come embedded in a branded app? There’s no doubt in my mind that the emerging alternatives to the App Store will benefit greatly from this ridiculous decision.”

SEND YOUR NEWS TO TIM.GREEN@INTENTMEDIA.CO.UK www.mobile-ent.biz

Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 31

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MOBILE MARKETPLACE SOFTWARE DEVELOPER

MARKETPLACE NEWS

PlayPhone’s great worldwide Alexander US content specialist PlayPhone has revealed a new delivery platform called ‘Alexander’, which will power all its worldwide D2C and B2B downloads.

The platform allows off-deck sale and delivery of content such as apps, music, video and games to multiple devices and platforms. It’s connected to more than 80 carriers in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, China and Spain.

Alexander has been improved by allowing operators to tailor content to user niches. Similarly, it can present customers with customised content suggestions based on their profile and past behaviour.

Other enhancements include the configuration of device databases that are updated automatically as soon as they are configured in PlayPhone’s central node and are replicated across all running storefronts. Content can be delivered through WAP, SMS, MMS and streaming depending on carrier/device capabilities. There’s also a backup feature called the Content Vault.

Last month PlayPhone revealed yet another brand partner in NBC TV, for which it will mobilise content based on shows like 30 Rock (see below), Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, Law and Order, The Office and others.

SMS SERVICES

InMobi lands hi5 deal hi5, the largest social networking site in Thailand, has selected InMobi to serve ads on its site.

InMobi got the exclusive deal based on its scale in Asia Pacific and its local market knowledge. It says it has already seen a 200 per cent growth in ad requests in the first two months of the partnership.

Cathy Meyer, InMobi’s senior director of ad operations at hi5, said: “InMobi’s local language support and local sales efforts has dramatically increased the ad revenue for our mobile site, while simultaneously offering our consumers locally relevant advertising.” hi5 is available in 50 languages and reaches 50 million monthly visitors.

Qualcomm to supercharge gaming for mobiles The 1GHz Snapdragon processor made by chipset giant Qualcomm could make gaming on the mobile rival PSP and DS by the end of the year, say Qualcomm execs.

Snapdragon is already powering the Nexus One handset. Mark Frankel, Qualcomm’s VP of product management, told ME:“There’ll be specific game-centric platforms launched around Snapdragon. You’ll see that gaming is the main focus of

those devices.” He hinted at Qualcomm’s future for the processor, which extends to a 2GHz version.

Frankel is also bullish about the emerging smartbook sector. “Apple’s giving the whole category a boost with iPad. I think there’ll be more light thin clamshelltype devices and tablet devices. But the more portable this product space is, the more user demand there’ll be for 3G connectivity.”

SEND YOUR NEWS TO TIM.GREEN@INTENTMEDIA.CO.UK 32 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

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GSMA: Crap but human

were the rent with its awards this year. Gone The GSMA tried to do something diffe ile chic mob et, buff up d stan a e cam e their plac formality and the sit down dinner. In sit a d ome welc correspondent would have and Duran Duran. Your knackered ME won a HTC n Whe Fry. hen Step host , for comedic down to be honest. Thank God then the to on hy GSMA forgot to bring the trop best handset award for the Hero, the robotic the GSMA may seem like a faceless that ence audi the stage. Fry reminded .

Nice . us” of rest the as an hum and organisation, but is just as “useless

Stephen Fry – even his dancing is funny Fry may win prizes for defusing e embarrassment, but he’s less impressiv part main the ng Duri . floor e on the danc of the awards, Fry invited winners to make a short speech or “express their pleasure through the medium of dance”. Claudia Poepperl, old mate of ME’s and a former lynchpin of the MEF, took Fry at his word when she won the Best Mobile Internet Service Winner prize with her new company Adafix. She told us: “I’m Austrian, and what do Austrians do? We waltz. He tried his best, but Stephen Fry is a terrible dancer.”

Wacky races, mobile-style than Qualcomm’s

ent? Look no further Sweetest business model of the mom t’s ices when there’s an accident. And wha serv cy rgen eme call that connected cars ngs, perhaps? setti ork netw their with ing fiddl rs going to cause the accident? Drive

list Never listen to a venture capitaCorb ett during ders Gilles Raymond and Giles ME caught up with ex-in-Fusio foun in-Fusio of their missed opportunities when or horr full MWC. They disclosed the VCs iny r-bra supe their tly aren App . es firm was the world’s biggest mobile gam to cry. t wan you es million euros in 2004. Mak persuaded them to turn down 300

Bunch of winkers The Japanese take their tech very seriously, even when everyone else is laughing. So without doubt the star of MWC was the poker-faced demonstrator of the firm’s eyeball controlled earphones. Next year, live tickling.

Late to the WAC party

lesale ld ask us what we thought of the Who Occasionally at MWC someone wou “We’ll tell you day.

Mon the on A GSM the by d Application Community as announce explanation stock reply. Still waiting for the full when we know what it is,” was our 24 operators the of that our rum a hear did we (we are lined up for an interview), but ed... start rday before the show that signed up, ten did so on the Satu

www.mobile-ent.biz

The MEF’s party on Mobile World Cong ress Monday was packed as ever, more so given the driving rain that prevented revellers nipping outside. Here are some pics featuring execs from Nokia, Telenor, 4th Screen, A3 Media and, of course, the obligatory finger pointing shot from Pocketga mer’s Chris James.

Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 33

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FAVOURITES

500 sq ft of Paul Goode

GILLES RAYMOND, CEO, Mobiles Republic

been many The GSMA’s Mobile Media Metrics has surprise to no was it and , ation gest the in s year on IMAX see its official unveiling at the Lond ation, this was jubil the all for But . out’ ‘sold cinema use Beca ?

Why t. ultimately a terrifying nigh to idea good a be ld wou it ded someone deci the ing prais s show a video of industry exec n is 20 feet project in extreme close-up. That scree de is a high and 26 feet wide! Now, Paul Goo is kind of handsome man in a chiselled Ed Harr de head? Too Goo the of feet re squa 500 But way. much of a goode thing, we think.

WHICH PHONE DO YOU CURRENTLY OWN? Right now the Samung Corby, a grea t mass-market touchscreen phone.

WHAT’S THE BEST PHONE YOU’VE EVER HAD AND WHY? BlackBerry, because it was the first phone to move people on from voice.

HOW MANY TEXTS DO YOU SEND A DAY? At least one.

Back-stabbing arseholes

CURRENT RINGTONE? Japonese sakuachi music. It’s very zen.

d stole Needless to say, Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherlan event as ics Metr ia Med ile Mob the at the show the usual. The wonderful speaker said that rity, matu new a rds towa ile mob es project mov have ts even ile mob and concluded: “Until now, the always been pleasant affairs because we’re all opportunity is a collective one. Now now on, competing against each other. From arseholes.” bing -stab back be to g goin all e we’r

WALLPAPER? My family.

FAVOURITE MOBILE GAME? Brain Challenge by Gameloft. Also inFusio’s Age of Empire. Microsoft neve r expected us to pull that off!

FAVOURITE APP? APPY of course.

We learned from the Xperia

MOBILE INTERNET BOOKMARKS? Wikipedia. As important as the first Encyclopedia from Diderot.

sense of What has happened to Sony Ericsson’s faced with a irony? On Sunday, journalists were Both had choice: Sony Ericsson or Samsung. . ME chose the time e sam the at ts even d dule sche be clinically to tend s show former, as Samsung we really hear did But rs. affai ss ourle hum efficient make the to was ion right when SE said its miss ld ‘change wou mini X10 its that And e? world smil mush rous ludic this d the industry forever’? Coul and man Berg of land the from e com really have the ger, Strin ard Strindberg? It was left to How the right British boss of Sony Corp, to sound ed the note. When asked if SE had really turn come to only s exec Sony ior corner he said: “Sen is happening big g ethin som n whe ts even e thes s.”

– I haven’t been here for three year

WHAT’S THE WORST IDEA YOU’VE SEEN IN MOBILE? The camera phone. It increased phone cost by five euros, killed the camera business, killed the wallpaper business and generated zero MMS revenue. Also, the belief that everything that works on the web works on mobile.

MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT SUBSCRIPTIONS UK: £50 EUROPE: £75 REST OF WORLD: £90 If you or one of your colleagues would like to request a subscription to Mobile Entertainment, please email mob.subscriptions@c-cms.com or call 01580 883848

Tim Green

Stuart Dredge

Stuart O’Brien

Lisa Foster

Katy Grant

Please note that this is a controlled circulation title and subscription criteria will be strictly adhered to.

Mobile Entertainment magazine – your direct link to the content biz No other B2B mobile content news source hits more eyeballs.

Here’s why: Monthly direct-todesk print circ: 8,012 Monthly digital downloads: 2,236 Online uniques: 68,134 (Google Analytics) Email news digest subscribers: 13,869

Executive Editor: TIM GREEN Tim.Green@intentmedia.co.uk

Sub-Editor: GEMMA MESSINA Gemma.Messina@intentmedia.co.uk

Production Manager: ABIGAIL FANGER Abigail.Fanger@intentmedia.co.uk

Online Editor: STUART DREDGE Stuart.Dredge@intentmedia.co.uk

Managing Editor: LISA FOSTER Lisa.Foster@intentmedia.co.uk

Subscriptions Manager: HANNAH SHORT Hannah.Short@intentmedia.co.uk

Total average monthly net circulation per issue for January 1st 2009 to December 31st 2009 was 8,012.

Associate Editor: STUART O’BRIEN Stuart.Obrien@intentmedia.co.uk

Advertising Sales Manager: KATY GRANT Katy.Grant@intentmedia.co.uk

Publisher/Managing Director: STUART DINSEY Stuart.Dinsey@intentmedia.co.uk

© Intent Media 2010. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission of the copyright owners. Printed by Pensord Press, NP12 2YA

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EDITORIAL: +44 (0)1992 535646 ADVERTISING: +44 (0)1992 535647 FAX: +44 (0)1992 535648 34 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

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