Top Of The Mobile Pop
Published: Friday, January 06, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
TOP OF THE MOBILE POPS
Cellphone type influences conversion to more functions
With the rapid growth of the mobile gaming sector, operators will be turning more
attention to factors that encourage cellphone users to convert to more sophisticated
functions like data and gaming.
A recent survey by M:Metrics for eMarketer will certainly be among the reference
materials in the search for that all-important marketing "edge"
In the survey Motorola RAZR and Sanyo SCP-8200 owners are big users of mobile
content. According to M:Metrics' chief product architect and senior analyst Seamus
McAteer the reasons for this are: "The Sanyo SCP-8200 has the highest conversion
rate in the industry thanks to Sprint's clean implementation of browser-based
services, and the RAZR's large, bright LCD promotes use of browser-based services
and game downloading."
Logically, those who are willing and able to pay extra money for fancy mobile
phones have the means and the interest in using those phones for advanced wireless
features.
The Motorola RAZR is not the only phone from the company to see extensive mobile
content access from its users. The four most popular phones among mobile data
users are all made by Motorola, according the M:Metrics. And at over 47 percent,
the RAZR model is second only to its Sanyo rival on conversion rates.
M:Metric's top 10 list of cellphones and their power to convert users makes interesting
reading:
Various models of Motorola dominate the list of American users who access mobile
content, with 5.4 million. Samsung follows on 1.3 million with LG and Sanyo in
the 700 - 770 000 band and Nokia with 651 000.
Motorola has a commanding place in the US mobile phone market in general. Data
from NPD Group indicates that with a 30 percent share of sales in the third quarter
of 2005, Motorola accounted for twice as many sales as LG or Nokia.
Although the Nokia 6010 was the second best selling handset in the US during Q3
2005, a mere 15.4 percent of its users accessed mobile content. As M:Metrics notes,
this phone is marketed to prepaid and lower-spending consumers, groups that make
much less of mobile Internet content.
The eMarketer report shows that there is enormous room for growth in the sector,
as only 3.1 percent of users said they had downloaded games. To put that in perspective,
10.2 percent said they were interested mainly in regular fixes of news. Text messaging
remains the most popular use at 32.2 percent.
Bearing in mind the US $ 3 billion industry revenues figure for mobile gambling
in 2005 presented by Tribeca executive Larry Barshack recently, the m-gaming sector
would appear to have significant potential.
