Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Capcom Interactive has launched Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? mobile game.

Based on the hit show, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? brings all the charm, humor and deceptively difficult questions to the mobile platform.

Players are asked a series of up to 11 questions ranging from subjects like U.S. history, math or social studies. Perform well and you can work you way to the $1 million question. Choke and be forced to utter the unenviable phrase “I’m not smarter than a 5th grader.”

The game features more than 800 questions covering 12 different subjects. Simulated students provide “peek,” “copy” and “save” assistance just like in the TV show. And sound effects from the TV show complete the experience.

This game is selling very well on the carrier decks and it is a fun game for consumers of all ages. And just to eliminate any perceived subjectivity, you can read IGN's review here.

And the best part, is that if you want to buy the game, you don't have to dig through the store on your phone to find it. Simply click here and use Capcom's slick phone downloader tool to buy it. (Note: Verizon users are not supported yet, but rumor has it that this will change soon.)

Gameloft - Making $$ in Mobile Gaming

One month after announcing they had sold over 100 million mobile games worldwide, Gameloft has announced record sales of 24.4 million euro for the third quarter.

During the first nine months of 2007, the company had sales of 70.2 million euro, up 51% from the same period last year. In addition, Gameloft has reiterated its annual sales target of 95 to 100 million euro.

Europe accounted for 44% of sales during the first nine months of 2007, North America 35% and the rest of the world 21%. Over this period, the strongest growth took place in the rest of the world, up 82%.

Gameloft said that it intends to release approximately 25 titles between the end of September and December 2007, including Heroes, CSI: Miami (pictured), Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia Classics and Beowulf.

This is great news because there has been a lot of talk about limited growth in mobile gaming over the last year. Perhaps it's possible that Gameloft is simply taking market share from other mobile game publishers but I highly doubt this accounts for all of the 51% growth in the period.

Glu, another big mobile game publisher, is scheduled to announce their most recent quarter results on Thursday, so we'll report on that later this week.

Bango releases new products; Movaya listens and learns

Some of the scariest moments you have as a startup founder is watching (via internet press releases / news updates) companies in your sector announce new products that *might* duplicate what your products/services do. Fortunately, you can almost always breathe a sigh of relief after digesting the content of the release or news, for it's rare when that other company actually has a product &/or service that competes with you.

The problem is that I ingest so much info, it's rare that I read something slowly, from start to finish, and more likely, I skim something that catches my eye, like the below snippet from email sent by a PR firm.

From Bango Corporate:
Bango launched Bango Boosted today, an API that is geared to help the mass market take full advantage of a low cost, mobile web presence. Bango Boosted is a web services API meant to enable mobile site builders to deliver Bango features to their customers' sites. mobiSiteGalore from Akmin Technologies is a site building tool designed to integrate with the Bango Boosted APIs and add Bango functionality to its core product. The services will also be available to users of site.mobi, the dotMobi site-building tool powered by mobiSiteGalore. Bango Boosted automatically activates entry level Bango functionality for any mobile website. Bango is looking for other site builder tools to use the API.

Skimming this, I get 'API; enable mobile site; site building tool'. I got a bit jumpy, then I read the entire piece and realized this service compliments us far more than competes with us. In fact, we met Bango at CTIA and might work with them.

Rocketshotz Update

We first reported on Rocketshotz last month and we just got an update from the team on some new features:

New Mobile Sites - They added over 50 new mobile sites including Maxim Magazine, Sports Illustrated and Burger King.

New Larger Link Capacity - each category can accomodate up to 50 sites as opposed to the 25 that was the previous cap.

OperaMini Style Support - they have added a new set of styles to accomodate OperaMini users.

SMS RocketShotz Share - this feature allows you to send them a quick link to the RocketShotz Mobile site directly to their phone via SMS.

It's great to see that these guys are taking feedback from their users and making upgrades to their system. We really like their product and think our readers should check it out.

Overall Customer Satisfaction Declining

Overall customer satisfaction with the wireless retail sales experience has steadily decreased since 2006, driven in large part by dissatisfaction with salespeople, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Wireless Retail Sales Satisfaction Study released today.

The latest study on customer satisfaction with major wireless carrier-branded stores found that Verizon Wireless stores met consumers' expectations better than the other carriers' stores. Verizon Wireless fared particularly well in terms of store facility, store display and price/promotion. T-Mobile USA came in second place, according to the study.

Overall satisfaction with wireless retail experience declined to 709 points on a 1,000-point scale, which marks a 7 point drop from May and a 12 point drop from a year ago. The study found that the average retail sales transaction now take approximately an hour, which is a four minute increase over the last reporting period in May.

CTIA State of the Union

The MPB team spent the last few days at the fall CTIA show in San Francisco. For those of you not familiar with CTIA, they host two events per year - the "Big Show" which takes place in the spring, and the fall show. There were lots of announcements (far too many for us to report on) but we will post a couple highlights that we saw later this week.

In terms of the overall market, things are moving briskly, with the following stats being reported by CTIA:

-As of June 2007 the U.S. wireless consumer market surpassed the 243 million subscriber mark, representing roughly 81% of the overall national population.

-U.S. subscribers now send an average of 1 billion text messages every day, transmitting 28.8 billion messages in June alone.

-Wireless data service revenues for the first half of 2007 rose 63% year-on-year to $10.5 billion. Data revenues account for 15.5% of all wireless service revenues.

-Wireless subscribers in the U.S. sent 2.6 billion MMS messages during the first half of 2007, which is nearly twice as much as last year.

-Wireless customers used more than 1.1 trillion voice minutes in the first half of this year, up 18% year-on-year.

mPoria: Simplifying Mobile Commerce

There has been a lot of talk in the past about the promise of M-Commerce (ability to conduct commerce, using a mobile device) but it appears that it is no longer just talk as there is a lot of renewed interest and action in this space.

One company that is at the forefront of this business is Seattle based mPoria. Founded by Dan Wright, mPoria is the leading m-commerce solution provider in the U.S. powering more m-commerce sites than any other company.

Their flagship product, GoMobile! provides a “ready-to-go” mobile commerce solution for retailers. With GoMobile!, retailers can create, publish and maintain an m-commerce site with no hassle and little cost.

The product seems to be resonating with the e-merchant crowd. Since launching in April, mPoria now serves more than 100 large, mid-size and niche merchants across a broad range of industry verticals including apparel, electronics, accessories, footwear, food, gifts, flowers, tickets, and more.

Pricing for GoMobile! starts at $70 a month and increases based on the number of SKU's the merchant wants to sell. You can learn more about the packages here.

If you're looking to get into the M-Commerce space, you should definitely check out mPoria's solution.

Democrats Rip into Wireless Carrier Practices

The Senate Commerce committee yesterday held a hearing about consumer wireless issues. Democrats complained about dropped calls, censorship and deceptive bills, while calling for stronger regulation of the industry. Republicans maintained that a lighter regulatory touch would prove more effective.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, even called for net neutrality laws citing locked phones and limited software availability as evidence of a need for more regulation. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat from West Virginia, claimed that "in the last few years, traditional and wireless carriers have concocted a number of line item charges, fees and surcharges."

Here at the MobilePhoneBlog, we are generally against government involvement with private business but the issues the Democrats bring up are worth thinking about for sure. No one I know likes locked phones and being told what software they can run on their devices.

For more on the hearing, read this write-up from eWeek.

Cake Mania Mobile - Huge Success!

Top developer and publisher of casual and family-friendly games Sandlot Games, and leading digital entertainment services company RealNetworks, Inc. last month announced the continued success of the smash hit casual game Cake Mania – this time on the mobile platform.

“Over the last few months, Cake Mania has been one of the most downloaded mobile games in the U.S.” said Matt Turetzky, Vice President at Real. “With its success on the PC, we anticipated a similar performance for the mobile version. Those expectations were surpassed and we’re proud to have teamed with Sandlot to deliver this hit casual title to gamers on their mobile handsets.” At the end of second quarter, RealArcade Mobile moved into the top ten ranked mobile publishers by downloads, in part due to the success of Cake Mania.

Originally developed by Sandlot Games for PC and online play, Cake Mania became the best-selling casual game of 2006 and was voted Yahoo’s 2006 Casual Game of the Year. In March 2007, Sandlot partnered with RealArcade Mobile to bring the hit title to the mobile handset.

“As a runaway hit on the PC, Cake Mania was a prime candidate for conversion to the mobile platform” said Daniel Bernstein, founder and CEO of Sandlot Games. “Gamers continue to get hooked on the challenging and unique elements that make Cake Mania such a fun experience, and by partnering with Real we were able to extend this hit game to the mobile community.”

Cake Mania is a time management game in which players help young entrepreneur Jill open her own bakery, bring in customers and earn enough money to re-open her grandparents' troubled business. The mobile version allows fans and new players alike to play a hit game in small sessions of easy mobile play, without losing the favorite elements of the original.

If you are an AT&T, Sprint or T-Mobile subscriber in the US, you can buy this game at BustedThumbs by clicking HERE.

R4 Mobile and Movaya Partner to Bring Interactive Marketing to Mobile Applications

Movaya-Powered Websites Now Able to Leverage Ad-Sponsored Mobile Content

SEATTLE, WA AND SAN DIEGO, CA - October 18, 2007 - R4 Mobile, a leader in interactive mobile marketing and merchandising solutions, has announced a partnership with Movaya, a leading provider of mobile content distribution software solutions. R4 Mobile provides tools and services for mobile applications to drive discovery and consumption of premium content. Configurable modules include dynamic sponsorship capabilities, in-application advertising, content licensing, interactive consumer feedback interfaces, up sells, cross sells, and viral functionality. Movaya will leverage R4 Mobile within its Platform M™, a complete web-based ecommerce software platform for mobile content transactions. Movaya will now be able to offer ad-supported content within its suite of mobile content distribution offerings, including its PlugNPlay system.

"We are always looking for innovative solutions to drive more revenues for our merchant and content publisher partners," stated Phil Yerkes, CEO and Co-founder of Movaya. "Given the uniqueness and scalability of their solution, we selected R4 Mobile to be our partner to provide interactive marketing and merchandising services. In addition to new revenue models, the R4 Mobile solution provides our customers insights regarding consumer behavior not previously available."

R4 Mobile's Interactive Marketing and Merchandising Platform™ is the industry leading white-labeled solution for carriers and portals to rapidly and effortlessly unlock the richness of advertising and merchandising uniquely available from within mobile applications. R4 Mobile solutions provide an array of mobile sponsorship modules, innovative real-time campaign management tools, and compelling insights into consumer behavior and preferences. For the first time, R4 Mobile's partners will have access to content preferences, usage patters, and explicit demographic and psychographic information which can be leveraged to dramatically increase the value of mobile advertising campaigns and targeting capabilities.

"At R4 Mobile, we created a highly scalable solution that brings interactive marketing and merchandising to mobile applications with no developer integration required," said Mark Munoz, COO of R4 Mobile. "We are pleased to be working with a leader such as Movaya who will make this solution available to its portal customers. For Movaya, its partners, and us, advertising is not the only objective. Rather, R4 Mobile makes it easy to engage with end users and drive purchases of premium content. We believe sponsored applications will drive content awareness and increase consumption of premium content to the benefit of all parties."

Movaya has partnered with several leading game publishers and online merchants such as Capcom Interactive, GameZone.com, Freezetag, GOSUB 60 and COM2US. Through its Platform M™', Movaya provides end-to-end mobile content storefront enablement from storefront creation, catalog management and over-the-air delivery of content and billing.

About Movaya
Movaya ( www.movaya.com ) is a Seattle-based technology company, whose mobile-content management and distribution software system allows mobile game publishers and online retailers to effortlessly extend their businesses to the growing off-deck mobile gaming marketplace. Movaya PlugNPlay is the company's flagship product, which brings together Mobile Game Publishers, Online Retailers and consumers in one marketplace for Mobile goods. Movaya is powering the off-deck, mobile gaming industry.

About R4 Mobile, Inc.
R4 Mobile is the leader in mobile marketing and merchandising solutions. Based in San Diego, California, R4 Mobile provides highly scalable, rapidly deployable mobile marketing and merchandising solutions for carriers, portals, and content publishers to grow consumption of premium mobile content and drive marketing revenues. For consumer brands, R4 Mobile provides turn-key, innovative marketing services that raise brand awareness, consumer relevance, interaction and acquisition. For additional information, email info@r4mobile.com.

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R4 and R4 Mobile are trademarks of R4 Mobile, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


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Press Contacts:
Movaya: John Calian, 206-527-2920
john.calian @ movaya.com

R4 Mobile: Mark Munoz, 858-459-2135
mark@r4mobile.com

Off-Deck mobile game sales: where are they?

As reported by mocoNews, this report from Telephia itemizes the average price paid for mobile applications and the number of consumers who downloaded them during the Q2 period of 2007. moco notes that games are not mentioned.

Interesting report, but after reading it I think moco could have done a better job with its analysis. This report appears to be centered on applications not including games; basically they are ignoring games.

We (Movaya) are simply waiting for a report JUST on games, especially concerning off-deck sales. The mobile gaming industry is at a crossroads right now, with carrier sales running flat, and off-deck sales stuck in the early adopters rut. In the near future, however, off-deck game sales will explode, and this will be due to large online retailers selling games, which produces wide consumer adoption rates. That will be a nice day!

Up Yours Record Labels / iTunes - Radiohead goes direct

Great post at Better Than New, where the author talks about the band Radiohead's decision to sell its latest album (In Rainbow, for sale here) directly to its fans (though getting a connection to the site today, launch day, is nearly impossible!!), with no middlemen taking a cut of the pie. Very, Very interesting story here. Radiohead and its management team decided to buck the system and take their product right to the consumer.

Many things come to mind here, not the least of which is that Radiohead is a hugely popular band, and it has the ability to go directly to consumers because they are not one of the thousands of bands vying for airspace both on- and off-line. So, this truly D2C offering works well for popular bands with big followings, but for the 99% of bands that don't have this level of popularity, the regular model will always be there to lean back on. Now, you may argue that all bands can approach this model over time, that the internet provides a way for all bands to promote themselves directly to fans who are searching for them...and that is the catch: how many music fans actually spend time 'searching' for new music beyond iTunes, Amazon, etc.? Probably less than 20% of all music fans, probably less than 5%. Most people are creatures of habit and generally do not have the free time to surf the net looking for the next hot band so that they can get the music directly.

No, the old model of aggregating music in one place (record stores, online stores) will be the rule for a long time to come. Not only for ease of use, but for the functionality of the websites in particular (iTunes is a website in this case, and technically it is as well) provide, like recommendations, reviews, user ratings and the like.

Though this concept of D2C is great, and shows everyone that the possibility to go direct can work, it really takes brand recognition to make it work well. This is a lesson that is not lost on anyone, across all industries.

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In the mobile content retail world, this lesson can be studied by mobile game producers looking to increase their margins by cutting out the carriers. There are branded games people search for every minute, games played on consoles and PCs. The branded franchise is thus sought out, rather than a store selling said franchise. Could EA, GLU and Capcom sell their branded, highly recognized game titles directly to consumers, without carrier billing and retailing (the bastard middlemen in our industry who take well over 50% of gross)? Yes, but it will take foresight, a solid marketing plan and time to educate consumers on the fact that mobile games exist for sale Off-Deck.

But like the music industry, the vast majority of sales will come from big box retailers like Amazon, Bestbuy, Wal-Mart and the like, who will begin to sell mobile games (please hurry up) and the industry will take off. And together, both efforts will rev up Off-Deck sales and Movaya will perfectly placed to reap a nice middleman cut.

************ UPDATE ********
Two more thoughts here: first, the band is allowing its fan to decide how much to spend on the album. Very interesting concept, I am very curious what that average purchase price will be; secondly, the album is fantastic (I am huge fan, BTW) and thus sales should be solid beyond the initial hype.

Free MONOPOLY game from McDonalds

Fresh off the news that Burger King was getting into the mobile gaming space,
Glu Mobile, announced today that it is working with McDonald’s to give away one million “instant win” game prizes of the MONOPOLY mobile game.

“With McDonald’s serving millions of customers a day, the mobile MONOPOLY game prize for the MONOPOLY 2007 Game at McDonald’s offers an enormous opportunity for Glu to build greater awareness for mobile games,” said Jill Braff, senior vice president of global publishing, Glu. “This is the first year that McDonald’s has offered a prize redeemable on a mobile device, and this is an ideal promotion for mobile gaming because the massive reach of the McDonald’s brand provides opportunity to get mobile games into the hands of a broad cross-section of American adult consumers.”

When a winner receives a game piece, they will be able to send a text message to receive a free download of the MONOPOLY® Mobile game.

Combining Americans favorite fast food restaurants with mobile games will certainly increase awareness. These are smart marketing moves by Mobliss and Glu and it will be interesting to see how these promotions impact the business. It wasn't long ago that Mobliss kicked off the texting craze in the US with the initial American Idol voting launch. Perhaps in the future we will look back on this time as a turning point in the mobile gaming space as well.

Burger King Signs Deal with Mobliss for Mobile Games

Burger King Corp. is hoping to extend its surprisingly successful gaming effort to mobile. Last week they announced a licensing deal with mobile content provider Mobliss Inc., to create downloadable cell phone games featuring Burger King branded content, including its King pitchman character.

The initial game currently in development will feature players vying for the role of the King's protégé by facing challenges and progressing in the virtual world of a Burger King-themed city, the company said.

The deal is the latest in so-called branded entertainment, in which companies seek to imbed their advertising in unconventional places. Burger King enjoyed whopping success last year with a series of titles for Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 gaming console. The games were available for $4 with the purchase of a value meal and sold 2 million copies, rivaling top-selling premium offerings. Mobile gaming is also suited to reaching Burger King's target demographic of young men.

"Anyone can buy advertising space in gaming; our vision is to be successful in generating original content that is relevant to our consumer," said Russ Klein, Burger King's president of global marketing, strategy and innovation. "Content-generated share of voice wins hearts and commands attention in an over-crowded medium."

Burger King plans to promote the games through in-restaurant signage and packaging. Customers will send a text message to download and purchase the games. The BK games are scheduled to debut in the spring of 2008.

GPhone as platform? What is in it for me?

According to an article in the New York Times (and a blog OP/ED), the much blogged about GPhone is not actually a phone. Rather, it is a mobile OS platform. I found amusement in the list put together over the last few years of all the claims of people actually 'seeing' the phone and blogging about its features. And, there is no phone! Rather, Google is apparently developing two things: an open source OS - Linux based, of course -- and a blueprint for designing hardware to work with said OS. And we all presume, now, that this platform will incorporate Google's advertising feed.

Which leads us to this: there are currently 3 major OS' in play on mobile today: Symbian, Microsoft Mobile and Apples OSX for mobile (there are others, but for arguments sake, we will stick with these 3). So, Google introduces the first 'open source' mobile OS, but with a catch: you have to incorporate the data feeds of advertising.

And one question this begs is will the benefit of using this OS, with advertising feeds, outweigh spending licensing fees or development costs on proprietary OS platforms?

We at Movaya have a good feeling about this OS, especially if the emphasis is on OPEN standards, where a consumer can be the one in control of the content that resides on the phone, and not the Carrier who manipulates the phone OS and functionality. I would bet that Nokia might make a phone with Google, as they always appear to be the most apt to take a risk. Possibly Motorola, as they decide how to combat RAZR fatigue. But really, any of hte OEMs that are sitting in the shadow of the iPhone craze might jump on board to work with Google if it indeed it produces a handset that people might wait in line for. And that is the concept that could sell an OS.

Verizon Wireless Unveils Holiday Lineup

Today Verizon announced four new handsets for its 2007 holiday lineup; the Verizon Wireless Juke by Samsung, the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 smartphone, The Venus by LG and The Voyager by LG. Each of the phones will hit store shelves before Thanksgiving. Prices were not announced.

None of these handsets are revolutionary, though the Voyager sports a touchscreen. Verizon's attempt to have their own 'iPhone-killer'? Well, it is a start. From descriptions of this handset, and reviews we have read, it appears to be a solid smartphone and the touchscreen helps. It does NOT have built in memory like the iPhone (memory cards are needed, which of course you can purchase) nor the slick Mac OS supporting it. But hey, you have to start somewhere.

The four handset descriptions:

The Juke- this handset features a swivel design. It boasts 2GB of internal storage, music player, VGA camera with Nightshot and access to VZ Navigator and Chaperone. The phone is exclusive to the carrier and will come in blue, red and teal. Read the Phonescoop review here.

The Venus- this phone sports dual screens and the bottom one includes tactile feedback. The handset includes a microSD slot, Get It Now, VCAST Video and Music, a music player and a 2 megapixel camera. It comes in black and pink. Read the Phonescoop review here.

The BlackBerry Pearl 8130- this first Pearl from Verizon Wireless includes EV-DO capability and GPS. Comes in tinted silver, a color exclusive to the carrier. Read the Phonescoop review here.

The Voyager- This phone has a large external touch screen that opens laterally to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. The Voyager also features an HTML browser, VCAST and microSD slot. Read the Phonescoop review here.

Of the four devices, the Juke is the slickest looking one, and the form factor is rather unique. Otherwise, more of the same from Verizon.

Parting words from the company:
"We are excited about these devices," said Mike Lanman vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless. "Our fourth quarter device portfolio includes best-in-class multimedia wireless phones that offer customers the latest in innovative technology and an array of features. Whether customers are seeking a cool, hip, fashion-forward music phone, a device that will help them stay connected to the office, or an entertainment- rich device that can also function in a business setting, we will have it -- on the nation's most reliable wireless network."

Three Months With the iPhone

Its been three months and counting with the iPhone, and the device has more than met my expectations. The UI is fantastic, everything you would expect from Apple. Certainly the web browsing is better than on any previous phone and the little widgets are fun and handy. The email is satisfactory, but certainly needs help, most specifically a SPAM filter. The best feature is the touchscreen, and I've become so accustomed to it that using any other phone feels like using a VHS machine. I pity anyone who has a numeric keypad as their input method. There are posts upon posts of all the good/bad of the iPhone. I will simply say that it gets a solid 8.5/10.

Here at Movaya we test cell phones on a daily basis, and the iPhone has more WOW factor than any handheld device, no argument. But the thing about an iPhone (or iPod/Mac) is that you own one because the design is out of this world, the feeling in your hand is excellent, the UI is second to none and the thought of using it is dreamy and fluid and inspiring. Yet, not everyone has been so kind.

Like ardent Microsoft users who still deny that OS X is at least on par with Windows (I mean, COME ON PEOPLE), there are plenty of folks bent on not liking the iPhone, for reasons both shortsighted and from pure stubbornness. Yes, it has software bugs. Yes, the walled garden is tall and almost impregnable. And Yes, it is not 3G. But I find it HARD to believe that so many naysayers find the iPhone so average, and even harder to believe that some support that there are phones ‘3 years old’ with the same attributes that the iPhone has. This is partly true, but mostly BS. Yes, other phones have pictures that come up when an incoming call arrives; yes, other phones can play video; yes, there are numerous phones with MP3 players...whatever. The fact is the iPhone is a device on the next higher rung of the evolution of handheld devices, a rung no other device is on. This is my assessment after three months. The device does all it set out to do in version one.

Now, does the device replace all smartphones? No, and it doesnt pretend to. Does it have all the great features that enable someone to ditch their laptop? Hell no.

But does the iPhone meet the high expectations of a Mac user? Most assuredly. For, if you do not see the beauty in a Mac (or iPhone), like seeing the beauty in an Audi TT, or a Bang and Olufsen stereo, or a building by F. Geary, then you are not one to truly embrace the iPhone. Because, frankly, owning an iPhone, like a Mac, is owning something for far more than utilitarian reasons.