Results from the Multimedia Research Consultancy's (TMRC) first
online survey of mobile games
industry experts The iPhone is a winner of support.
The participating organizations report current mobile games sales up
on a year ago (43 per cent say sales are up vs. 29 per cent saying they
are down).
However, despite the economic downturn and this moderately good
result they are very positive about 2009, not only for their own
organization's sales prospects, but also for the industry as a whole.
66 per cent anticipate that the value of their enterprise's mobile
games sales will rise in the next 12 months, with only 11 per cent
expecting a decline.
The iPhone is
already rated as the most successful Development Platform/Operating
System (DP/OS) by 71 per cent of our experts. When the experts looked into the future, they expected the iPhone to get
stronger, possibly precipitating the demise of several existing
platforms.
Google's Android,
which, according to respondents, is expected to make substantial
advances in the market place over the next two years. In fact both the
iPhone and Android are predicted to become long term forces in the
mobile games industry.
Storing up trouble for its rivals
At the same time Apple's App Store is seen overwhelmingly by the
majority of our experts (77 per cent) as having "revolutionized the way
that mobile games are sold" - with the strong likelihood of this
development threatening existing distribution patterns.
Vic Whiting, MD "We have long observed that the mobile games
industry has not been short on individuals prepared to give their views
on the wide range of issues challenging this space, either online, in
print or at conferences. Well, the Mobile Games Industry Experts Panel
is now able to give these opinions statistical solidity and reliability
by measuring the industry sentiment of a large number of experts. A
report based on the results from the 1st Survey is now available and
anyone in this industry trying to effectively orientate their business
strategy would find it invaluable".
The report, which also covers reactions to the Credit Crunch and
other industry issues, is available for sale from The Multimedia
Research Consultancy. More details can be found at
http://www.multimedia-research.com/
Survey - Technical Details:
The survey was carried out in January & February 2009 amongst
147 executives from 136 mobile games enterprises in 38 countries. 73%
were involved in development, 39% in publishing, 21% in content
aggregation, 23% in distribution and 27% in running portals. 85% of
respondents were CEOs, MDs, Presidents, Directors, SVPs, VPs, EVPs,
COOs, CTOs or Studio Heads.