I-play finds 95% of mobile users reluctant to download games |
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Published
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Mon, 01 Aug 2005 19:35
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In a first of its kind study, mobile games company I-play has found that almost 95 percent of mobile users were reluctant to download games to their handsets.
The survey was conducted across the USA, UK, Italy, Spain and Germany and sought to examine the behaviour, barriers and motives of mobile users in those countries. A collective sample of 2,500 mobile users was questioned on their 'mobile' habits by I-play. Speaking about the survey, David Gosen, COO of I-play said, "The mobile games market is essentially only five percent penetrated.
The good news is that we now know what's limiting market growth - the industry must improve
accessibility to mobile games and more importantly, educate consumers on how and where to obtain mobile games."
Some of the more astonishing findings of the survey were that only 5 percent of mobile users had ever downloaded games onto their handsets despite the aggressive advertising campaigns to promote mobile gaming. This effectively means that as far as the mobile segment is concerned, the gaming industry is still in its infancy and the potential for growth is enormous given that interest in emerging markets like India and China is only going to increase exponentially.
The main problem with the paucity of games downloads on mobiles as found by I-play was that respondents were simply not aware if their handset supported gaming. This was the case with almost 30 percent of those surveyed. However, 80 percent of Spaniards were aware of the capabilities of their handsets as compared with 60 percent of Germans.
Almost 17.5 percent of those surveyed did not possess the know-how of downloading the games, while the rest said that the downloading process itself was tedious. As far as the pricing was concerned, 51 percent of the respondents felt that given better rates they would be encouraged to download more games, while 48 percent were in favor of free trail versions. 30 percent said that they would go for a game if a friend recommended it. "The research findings are one example of how we put the consumer at the center of what we do as a business.
Firstly, through understanding that 'virgin downloaders' need more education about the process and more information about the game before they feel comfortable making that first purchase is critical. We know we have to de-risk that first download for the end user," said Gosen.
Last year, the mobile gaming industry had been worth $1.3 billion. This is now poised to increase up to $2.6 billion by the end of this year, according to Informa Telecoms & Media.
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