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The Mobile Games industry - Ten Years On

In 2007 the global mobile games industry celebrated its tenth anniversary. A decade earlier Snake was the first game to be embedded onto a mobile handset (Nokia's 6110), effectively marking the birth of today's industry.

Following this tentative first step the number of enterprises making up the industry has, despite yearly fluctuations, risen over time so that it now boasts an industrial base comprising 1,968 actively trading mobile games enterprises, with a geographical reach spanning 93 countries.

More importantly the number of Mobile Games enterprises attaining longevity and maturity, in what is an aggressively dynamic market place, is encouraging. 53% of enterprises have now been trading for five years or more, and in fact 17% for seven years or more. The business is clearly not just an ephemeral market phenomenon.

Market Review and Database

These are just some of the headline findings from the Multimedia Research Consultancy's (TMRC) second (substantially expanded) review of the world's Mobile Games industry, the culmination of three years of research.

It has involved the production of a worldwide database, in which almost 2,000 actively trading Mobile Games Enterprises (Developers, Aggregator-Distributors, Publishers and Portals - DAPPs for short!) have been profiled. DAPPs dealing with all variants of mobile phone games (i.e. Java, BREW, i-Mode/Doja, Smartphone, Symbian, Mophun, ExEn/EGE, Palm Treo, NSeries/N-Gage, iPhone and Blackberry compatible) have been included.

Completely enhanced and updated in the last three months of 2007 the database is around two to three times greater than previous industry estimates, making it more comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date than all known rival sources.

Key Games Industry Resource

MRC's MD Vic Whiting explained the reasoning behind the research "We believe this new, enhanced version of the database will prove an invaluable industry resource. We have listened to the market place and now cover, amongst other things, the platform/operating system and advanced mobile gaming specialisms of each enterprise."

"Any organisation seeking to acquire, merge, partner or collaborate with other mobile games enterprises could benefit from using this database. Equally enterprises wishing to promote testing, porting and localisation services, as well as billing, platform, middleware and advergaming solutions will also find it an essential business development tool."

The level of detail TMRC has collected on each enterprise is such that it can now provide a vast array of potential cuts from the database, some of which are shown on the table at the base of this email. The two versions of the global Mobile Games DAPPs database (The Essential Contacts and The Full Profiles)*, as well as customised extracts, were launched in January 2008 and are now on sale.

More information from the review of the world's Mobile Games Industry is available on the TMRC website at http://www.multimedia-research.com/DAPPs-summary.html and you are welcome to reprint any elements from this free of charge.. Alternatively if you would like a customised article produced please contact vic@multimedia-research.com

TMRC Contact Details:-

*Full details can be found at http://www.multimedia-research.com

and full details about TMRC at http://www.multimedia-research.com/projects.html

Contacts

Victor Whiting

(Managing Director)

Tel. +44 (0) 1322 557365

Fax +44 (0) 1322 559347

Mobile +44 (0) 7973 728075

Email vic@multimedia-research.com

Address 188 'Braemar'

Station Road

Crayford

Kent

DA1 3QQ

Peter Kidman

(Research Director)

Tel. +44 (0) 20 8292 6367

Fax +44 (0) 20 8888 7039

Mobile +44 (0) 775 1560 883

Email peter@multimedia-research.com

Address 4 Alexandra Avenue

London

N22 7X3

Mobile Games Enterprises Global Database - Selected Statistical Highlights

No. as at January 5th 2008

Regional Totals of Mobile Games Enterprises

Greater Europe

863

The Americas

452

Japan & South Korea

219

The Rest of the World

434

World Totals (Includes organisations whose functions overlap)

Developers

1,403

Publishers

485

Aggregator-Distributors

486

Portals

524

Java Developers

1,069

BREW Developers

517

3D Mobile Games Developers

730

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