According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, “Many online casinos are now moving into the mobile environment, while bookmakers such as Ladbrokes and Coral have partnered with leading applications providers to launch own brand mobile casinos. Furthermore, the recent success of casino products from mobile-focused companies such as Probability demonstrates the latent demand for these kinds of services.”

However, the report cautions against over-optimism, observing that, recent deregulation notwithstanding, in many markets, including the US, remote casinos are prohibited.

“While it is possible – even probable – that we will see some form of regulatory reform that will permit location-based, mobile casino services in the US by the end of the decade, casino services – mobile, online or otherwise – are illegal in a number of territories and are likely to remain so for some time,” said Holden. “Given the stringent penalties which can be imposed on unlicensed service providers, those wishing to deploy casino-based or other gambling services must ensure strict compliance with local legislation.”

Other findings from the report include:

• Global gross win from mobile casino services will rise from less than $5m in 2007 to $133m in 2012

• The UK currently accounts for more than 60% of total wager on mobile casino services, although this proportion is likely to fall to less 20% by 2012 as adoption accelerates elsewhere

• While adoption of multiplayer casino services is relatively low, average monthly wager levels have already exceeded $100 in several markets

Juniper Research assesses the current and future status of mobile gambling market based on interviews, case studies and analysis from representatives of some of the leading organisations in the growing mobile gambling industry.

In total, more than 460m mobile users are expected to download games by 2009, representing more than a double increase on the current number. Much of this growth is expected in emerging markets such as the Indian sub-continent, where the number of users will rise from 10m in 2007 to nearly 40m in 2009.

According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, “Game downloads have already overtaken those of ringtones in a number of Western European markets, while mobile handsets are now the de facto games console in many developing countries.”

However, the Juniper Research report cautioned that the high cost of browsing and downloading services and content combined with opaque pricing structures were continuing to act as a disincentive to service adoption. It also welcomed the fact that there were an increasing number of products targeting female gamers, although added that more needed to be done to widen the mobile gaming demographic.

“Essentially, the proportion of leading titles focusing on action and adventure has not altered discernibly over the past two years,” said Holden. “While these are popular within the traditional gaming demographic, there is a major opportunity to attract casual gamers by enhancing a portfolio mix with more titles from alternative genres.”

Other findings from the Juniper report include:

• China and the Far East will remain the largest regional market for mobile games throughout the period covered by the report, with revenues rising from nearly $2.7bn in 2007 to $5.7bn by 2012.

• Global revenues from in-game advertising will rise from just $90m in 2007 to more than $1.2bn in 2012

• Operators and publishers should expand the number of games they offer on a free trial basis: with the entry price barrier removed, a greater number of consumers may play the game and ultimately convert to being paid customers

Juniper Research assesses the current and future status of mobile games based on interviews, case studies and analysis from representatives of some of the leading organisations in the growing mobile games industry.

“On a worldwide scale, the mobile phone market continued to post positive results in the third quarter, even as vendors struggle to balance revenue and profitability,” said Ramon Llamas, research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team. “On the one hand, emerging markets have required vendors to provide low-cost handsets, which boost volume but reduce revenue and sometimes profit per device. On the other hand, mature markets have an appetite for higher-end handsets that can generate more revenues and profit. The leading vendors have been successful at balancing features and price for the distinct markets in a highly competitive space.”

“While growth in the overall mobile device industry has slowed over the past few quarters, the converged mobile device segment continues to grow several times faster than traditional phones, and accelerated to more than 50% year-on-year growth in the third quarter,” added Ryan Reith, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Phone Tracker. “A wide selection of devices, combined with declining initial price points have made this segment of the market an immense growth opportunity for manufacturers. At the same time, this space is attractive for the operators because these devices are often bundled with a data plan, which in turn means increased revenue per user.”

Nokia posted its second consecutive quarter of 100+ million units, and shipped more units than the next three vendors combined. This accomplishment emphasizes Nokia’s size, but was also notable since the company was handicapped by component shortages. Despite a depressed average shipment price resulting from a high volume of entry level 1110 and 1116 models, Nokia was able to realize operating margin improvement across all of its device categories due to scalability, lowered cost structures, distribution, and brand recognition. Entry level devices made up the bulk of Nokia’s shipments, but its converged mobile devices and feature phones helped drive revenues and profits.

Samsung marked its second consecutive appearance in the number two spot worldwide, this time extending its lead over Motorola to 5.4 million units for the quarter. On a year-to-date basis, Samsung still trailed behind Motorola, but cut that gap to only 3.3 million units. The company realized double-digit operating profit margin by shipping more high-end devices including its popular Ultra Edition handsets.

Motorola kept the number three spot worldwide for the quarter, and was the only leading vendor to post a negative year-over-year shipment delta. Although its Mobile Devices segment suffered a consecutive operating loss, Motorola improved sales slightly from the previous quarter by $0.2 billion. Helping improve its revenue were some of its newly released devices, including the music-optimized Motorola U9, two new Z6 devices, and nearly a million RAZR 2 devices.

Sony Ericsson remained in fourth place for the sixth consecutive quarter, and continued its string of quarterly double digit operating profit margin even while more aggressively building its presence within emerging markets. While the company’s Walkman-branded phones, including its successful W580, have been popular selection for the high end of its portfolio, they have also become available with its low-end and mid-tier segments with the W200, enabling Sony Ericsson to capture more users. In addition to capitalizing on its Walkman sub-brand, Sony Ericsson has also found success with Cybershot and Bravia sub-brands, attracting those looking for phones optimized for digital image capture and enhanced display. Sony Ericsson growth slowed to 31% from roughly 60% in the prior three quarters as volume increased, but Samsung grew notably faster during the third quarter.

LG Electronics took fifth place once again during the quarter, and closed the gap behind Sony Ericsson to just four million units. While North America remained one of the company’s shipment targets, the company cited success within emerging markets, particularly Latin America with its MG and MX 200 series devices. To this end, LG relied on its entry level devices to attract first time users, a move that negatively impacted its profits, but only slightly since the company’s steps to improve cost structures mitigated against potential losses.

cellular-news

Through an ongoing trial that started this summer, select Reuters journalists around the world made use of the mobile journalism application in their everyday work to edit, combine and file text, images, sound and live and recorded video streams, producing and publishing multi-media stories of broadcast quality without needing to return to the studio or office.

“This is a very easy-to-use application that takes account of the demands placed on journalists in the field,” said Nic Fulton, Chief Scientist of Reuters Media. “By running on handheld devices, rather than on bulkier laptop computers, the mobile journalism application enables us to create complete stories and file them for distribution, without leaving the scene. This saves us time and benefits our audience by ensuring that they receive high quality news that is absolutely up-to-date.”

While the application’s most immediate use would be for professional journalists, the implications of the research could be much wider in the long term. Timo Koskinen, project manager with Nokia Research Center, said: “The term ‘citizen journalism’ has been in use for several years, but technological innovations – particularly the introduction of mobile multimedia computers – have transformed the concept. ‘Citizen journalism’ is beginning to embrace a wide range of public engagement with the media, from groups of contributors organized around subject or geographic areas to the casual participation of observers who are lucky – or unlucky – enough to be at the scene of a newsworthy event.”

The mobile journalism application uses the multimedia capabilities already available in existing smart phones and combines these to produce a toolkit that fits intuitively with the way in which journalists want to use it. The toolkit comprises multimedia capabilities, text editing tools and live video streaming and is accessed using an innovative user interface. Metadata facilities automatically combine every piece of information the device already has about the context for the story – location, time, date and so on. For the trial, GPS integrated video-streaming technology was provided by Comvu. Reuters has already developed a mobile editorial interface that links the toolkit developed by NRC to the in-house editorial process, allowing stories to be published almost instantly from the field.

The trial involved a select group of Reuters journalists who filed stories from events ranging from New York’s Fashion Week to the Edinburgh Film Festival. Reuters continues to make experimental use of the application. A group of university students will also use the application in coming months, to give an idea of how the toolkit could possibly work in a future citizen journalism context.

View footage and download stills from the mobile journalism trial here: http://reutersmojo.com

“The combination of unlimited data plans and next-generation Internet-enabled mobile devices, like Apple’s iPhone, suggests mobile Web access will grow to become ubiquitous,” said Matt Booth, senior vice president and program director, Interactive Local Media, The Kelsey Group. “Growing mobile Internet usage and increased satisfaction with mobile Internet applications are among the converging factors that we believe point to a breakthrough year ahead for mobile ad adoption.“

The Kelsey Group said last month that it estimates U.S. mobile search advertising revenues to rise from $33.2 million in 2007 to $1.4 billion in 2012, which would be a compound annual growth rate of 112 percent.

According to the study maps and local search are the most used mobile Internet applications. In the past six months, 9 percent of respondents used their mobile phones to perform Internet searches for products and services in their local area. In the same period 10 percent downloaded or looked at maps and 10 percent said they had downloaded search or mapping applications in addition to those that came with their mobile phones.

Among the 500 mobile users surveyed in the Mobile Market View study, maps and local commercial search are preferred Internet applications. In the past six months, 9.8 percent of respondents used their mobile phones to conduct Internet searches for products and services in their local area. During the same period, 10.7 percent downloaded or looked at maps, while 10.9 percent indicated they had downloaded search or mapping applications (for use on the Internet) to supplement those that came with their mobile phones.

The Kelsey group