On Technology and the Future: Education, IoT, AI, Mobility, Games

Tag: mobile content Page 11 of 12

Even Gameloft can fail, apparently: disconnects Connect

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On 04/01/2008

Mobile games giant Gameloft, the one company in the space that seemed immune to failure, apparently shuts down its Gameloft Connect D2C service. Gameloft had started this as a iTunes-style application with all the bells and whistles: it was a downloadable PC application that allowed users to browse Gameloft’s catalogue online and bypass bandwidth restrictions (and billing charges) of mobile networks by utilising the computer’s bandwidth. Games could be loaded via a PC-handset connection and activated by SMS.

However, now it seems to only signify that direct-to-consumer propositions for mobile games are a tough business. They may have wanted too much: mobile games are a very real business but they seem to be too niche still to justify a full-blown integrated product like this, in particular when it is not a one-stop shop but only provides access to one publisher’s catalogue (even if such a good one such as Gameloft’s). A real pity that!

Vodafone walks through the Ovi with Nokia

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On 07/11/2007

In Deals

Following their relatively recent announcement of a multimedia initiative, Nokia reports a big win with Vodafone having agreed to carry their Ovi platform on Nokia devices that are distributed through the operator. Ovi, which is Finnish for door, was to be Nokia’s next big push towards becoming a multimedia company. One of its flagships under that umbrella, the Nokia Music Store, will now run alongside Vodafone’s own music service.

Nokia’s risk with the introduction of Ovi was that operators would reject having the Ovi links on the phones that they were distributing (not uncommon for them to do), so to have the “world’s largest operator by revenue” amongst their ranks is no small feat. Otherwise, Nokia would have seen limited distribution in markets where handset prices are subsidised by carriers, which is true in most!

With Nokia having bolstered its portfolio of offerings in recent months even more (the acquisition of Navteq being the biggest one), this opens the pipeline to a much richer content experience, and this is what might have pursuaded the good folks at Vodafone: with carriers struggling to come to terms on the “right” treatment of content to maximise sales and user experience, a door to a fully-packed store of content and applications must sound tempting.

It might actually mark a turn in the market: could it become the handset manufacturers who will take the lead in the content space and become the funnel through which content providers feed their wares to the consumer? It would make sense in that it is arguably easier for an OEM to ensure that there is optimal performance for a product on a device (after all, they manufacture the device). Such a model would bring relief to the operators who would continue to control the billing relationship with the consumer and hence alleviate fears of removing that bond but they would be a big step closer to becoming the dreaded bit pipe as had happened to ISP on the Internet. I have argued before that this process would – in any event – take longer, so that might alleviate fears.

It is breaking into the control-driven model of operators, and that is a significant development in itself. Nothing will of course change for the content providers, at least not in the short term: it is just that they need to ring a different doorbell now (or rather an additional one…).

End2End buys Terraplay

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On 26/10/2007

Not too much is being divulged about the latest deal in the consolidation of the mobile sector other than that it happened: The Danish mobile platform company End2End has acquired the Swedish multi-player enabler Terraplay. If well-managed, this could be a smart move: End2End has shown some strength recently in managing the mobile content platforms for a couple of operators whilst Terraplay had quite a few wins in the early land-grab to becoming the operators’ partner for the facilitation of multi-player gaming. Combining the two propositions is an imminent win: the true value of mobile games (beside killing time) is its always-on, anytime, anywhere nature. A mobile phone is a communication device, and connected gaming makes use of just that – communication.

Given that most operators/carriers seem to choose an outsourced solution (presumably because they have no internal bandwidth for this – relatively speaking – niche opportunity), the combination of a platform provider with a connected applications enabler is a great move. End2End had a need to ramp up their footprint to avoid becoming a little shadow player in the big land-grab. They have just added this little extra now!

Motricity acquires Infospace mobile assets

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On 15/10/2007

In Deals

Now, this is a big deal: Motricity puts $135m in cash onto the table of the under-pressure Infospace people to acquire the remains of the Infospace mobile business, including search, storefronts, portals and messaging. The deal was financed by existing investors Carl Icahn and VC Advanced Equities (see reporting from MoCoNews here and here).

The acquisition marks the end of an odyssey into mobile by Inforspace, in which it first acquired and then effectively destroyed some of the brightest stars on the mobile content sky, including game developers Atlas (bought for $6m, sold for $1.5m), Elkware (bought for some $26m and then closed) and IOMO (bought for $15m, then closed in August 2007) as well as ringtone giants Moviso. They lost people, money and ultimately the businesses (e.g. IOMO’s founders have recently opened their new shop, Finblade). What a battlefield…

Motricity’s, so far predominantly a platform and storefront provider, entrant into the increasingly competitive content publishing space comes at a time where more and more players try to extend their reach on the value chain: one sees platform providers expanding into master content provider relationships, one sees publishers (e.g. Player X) seizing the same position, and all are in a quest to concentrate enough revenue and margin in order to be able to run a profitable business in an environment where still the majority of players are losing money.

The challenge for Motricity will be to grow its business outside the US, and this is arguably where the risks are hiddedn. In the US, the company claims to have now grown their distribution footprint to 11 of “top 13” North American carriers (which leave another 10 that are apparently not top), which however seems OK since they add two of the biggies which they couldn’t reach before, namely mighty Verizon and AT&T (I still prefer the name Cingular!). The gamble is arguably being mitigated by the presumed synergies through the search, portal and messaging business, and this is where I suspect the balance of risk lies in respect of the financial considerations: because it harnesses Motricity’s existing business, the venture into the publishing side of things appears somewhat less risky. All in all, a deal that might just make sense; if the money is adequate? Who could say? What proportion of growth will come through which part of the business? Hmmm. There have been deals that, on the face of it, looked more reckless in the past (remember the seemingly atrocious $145m Jamdat paid for Blue Lava [incl. $8m non-breakup fee to Tetris, LLC])? It paid off for them as then EA bought them for a rather sweet $680m. I would not suggest that the same will happen to Motricity although, looking at the monies invested into them to date, it will just about have to be the exit its investors are looking to.

Fishlabs nets fresh catch

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On 15/10/2007

The wonderful people from Fishlabs from the beautiful city of Hamburg announced the close of their first round of funding by VC Neuhaus Partners. Fishlabs, who are specializing in high-end 3D mobile games want to use it to add connectivity to their games. Wonderful coincidence then that “best friends” Exit Games are also an investee of Neuhaus.

Whilst I am not sure if the words of the Neuhaus Partners Managing Partner according to which 3D games are about to become mass-market are true just yet, the addition of connectivity to the beautiful titles of the Fishlabs guys will make for a very powerful proposition. And it might not matter when the mass market sets in because the niche for these high-end gems might just about become large enough for a gifted development house. The perceived value of such games will be higher and, with Exit Games’ connectivity suite, this value can be extended even further.

This seems to be confirmed by a couple of deals they have done in the past months where they extended distribution to highly evolved regions like Korea as well as with some tier-2 publishers like Player X, which has a larger reach than Fishlabs could have mustered themselves.

In any event, I wish them a good catch!

Disclaimer: yes, I have lived in Hamburg and love the city. Yes, I know the guys from Fishlabs and Exit Games and really like them. No, I do not benefit in any way.

Emotional attachment to mobile content…

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On 09/10/2007

Yay, another study is out! This time, we are being told that users have “strong attachment to the content on their devices, which includes address books, ringtones, text, pictures, music, games, and other applications”. Ah, it includes the address book and pictures – presumably those primarily taken themselves with the phone’s camera. Astonishingly, users reported that losing their phone is far more painful than […] breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend. Hello? Did they only ask specialists in speed-dating? Over half said that losing their phone would cause their social life to suffer. Well, yes, your evenings can be pretty lonely if you don’t have any number of any friend anymore…

66% of the users re-enter new addresses manually into new devices. Have they never heard of the software suites delivered with every phone these days that make this a piece of cake?

There is of course some truth in this, such as the grown significance of mobile phones and mobile-created/stored content, and, yes, because people tend not to use the tools readily available, it can be a pain in the neck when you need to swap the beauties. However, much of the findings appear to be slightly distorted by the above mentioned contacts and pictures. 70% of the users find it extremely or very important to back their contacts up. Doh! Why don’t they? This already goes down to 30% for photos – and these are arguably as personal. No word on ringtones and games. Whilst I can see people sweating over having lost 450 telephone numbers including the one of the rich auntie, I struggle to see a user weeping because his Tetris highscore is no longer available on his shiny new phone (although then, they just might). This is in spite of the cost of mobile content, which can be significant when you add up content purchases over the lifetime of the device.

Who commissioned the study you’re asking? A company called FusionOne. And what does FusionOne do you say? Well, in their own words: “mobile applications that help consumers protect and manage the personal content on their mobile phones, including contacts, calendar, photos, music and messages.” There you have it.

Twistbox on the money

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On 11/09/2007

In Deals

Twistbox has announced it has raised a healthy $19.5m from ValueAct Capital (rather secretive firm: you require a user name and password even for accessing the “overview” section of their site) and “other strategic investors”. It also announced that former Vodafone Global content supremo Graeme Ferguson has joined its board of directors.

Twistbox was the result of the acquisition of German developer Charismatix (authors of e.g. Anno 1701, Taito’s Arkanoid, etc) by (predominantly) mobile adult (which they call “late night”) content provider Waat Media from LA (who work with the likes of Private and Vivid)After a lot of buzz around them a while ago (and every year again at 3GSM when everyone gets gibberish over their licensees’ parties – no, no scantily-clad girls there worth mentioning, ever…), it had gone a bit quiet. The last we heard was a deal they signed with Fashion TV.

Presumably, the new money and director will get them out into the public eye a bit more again. According to the release, they plan to use the funds to launch web-to-mobile storefronts and play-for-prices games. They also want to push into advertising (but then, who doesn’t?).

We all suspect there’s money in this “late night” content but little has been seen to quantify the opportunity. Juniper said in 2005 it was $1bn. Forbes didn’t quantify in 2006. I have seen analysts who put the share of erotic games to 12% of the total mobile gaming sector, ranking them above racing and arcade games (7% and 5% respectively) but that’s somewhat unconfirmed. Moreover, video and pics will presumably be even hotter sellers – if and when they get through the varying publishing thresholds in the different countries (from PG13 in the US all the way to “behind-the-curtain” adult content in some European countries. An overview on various attempts to put a number to that market can be found here (courtesy of adult mobile pioneers, Cherrysauce).

As it will in general still be arguably safe to say that sex probably still sells, we might expect Twistbox to go on to further strengths. Just get your parties up a notch, guys… 😉

Finally, a note to all you dear readers: this post contains links to adult sites. Do NOT click if you are offended by adult content.

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