Men Do Not Dominate Mobile Games Usage - Report

The mobile games supplier, Glu Mobile has conducted a survey into consumers. preferences for downloading and using mobile entertainment content. The survey found that the youth market is the fastest growing sector of the mobile entertainment industry, with 29% of 16-24 year olds using their phone as a gaming device.

"Although many of us still view mobile phones as a recent technology, there is a growing generation of consumers who have known and used mobiles throughout their lives. Our research demonstrated the frequency with which younger consumers text, MMS and play games versus than older mobile phone users," said Kristian Segerstrale, managing director emea, Glu.

"The image of the classic gamer as 18 to 35 and predominantly male is a myth for mobile - in truth, mobile gamers are much younger and just as many women as men play on their phone. The mobile games industry needs to sharpen its marketing focus to reflect these trends if we are to continue growing the audience for rich and exciting mobile entertainment content."

Despite the perception in some of the traditional media that mobile phone gaming has yet to really catch on, Glu's research showed that a significant number of UK consumers play games on their phone. When asked about their mobile gaming habits, the survey found:

• Almost 16% of phone owners regularly use their mobiles to play games
• This rises to 29% amongst the more gaming and content-savvy 16-24 age group
• Gaming is the fourth most popular activity people use their phones for, behind voice calls, texting and taking photographs
• 5.8% of all UK adults have purchased a mobile game for their phone at some time

Youth is a key driver of the mobile games market

Glu's research has confirmed that younger users are the most comfortable downloading and using multimedia content. Especially for those consumers in the 16-24 age group, mobile phones are being used as a take-anywhere entertainment device; where users are just as likely to take a video or play a game as make a phone call. Glu found that:

• 19% of 16-24 year olds have purchased games for their handset - that's double the number of people who have downloaded a game amongst users aged 25-34
• The 16-24 age group is the most content-savvy, making more use of a phone.s high end functions and multimedia capabilities than any other age group
• 36% of 16-24 year olds plan to buy the same or more mobile entertainment in 2006, and 23% are hoping to upgrade their handsets this Christmas

Consumers rank price and quality above brands

The survey also confirms that mobile entertainment generally is still a price-driven market, with cost influencing the majority of purchase decisions. 16-24 years olds, however, are much less influenced by cost: price is the most important consideration only in 50% of sales in this age group. It appears that marketing also works much harder within this demographic, specifically the way is it designed and presented, as 35% of 16-24 year olds said they would buy entertainment content because of the way it looks, versus 25% who would choose based on a featured brand. The survey also showed that:

• Price is the most important consideration for 62% of consumers when choosing entertainment content. Further to this, 79% of consumers have never paid more than

  Posted to the site on 16th January 2006

  Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/15590.php