With invention of cell phones, users were very much impressed with the fact that it could be used to make phone calls from anywhere. But very soon mobile phones started to modernize, and people wanted more out of their cell phones than just for phone conversation. Various Mobile VAS applications came into existence. Mobile games is also one of them.

What is Mobile game?

Mobile game is a video game played on a mobile phone, smartphone, PDA,or portable media player. Mainly refered to, games played using cell phones. One of the first game which was pre-installed on the mobile phone (almost all phones) is the snake game.

How can one access Mobile games?

Mobile games are usually downloaded via the mobile operator’s radio network, but in most cases are also loaded into the mobile handsets when purchased, or via infrared connection, Bluetooth or memory card. For downloaded able games, service request happens through SMS, MMS, GPRS technologies.  There are four main service discovery channels:

  1. Over the Air (OTA) – Game is delivered to the mobile device via wireless carrier networks
  2. Sideloaded – Game is loaded onto the mobile phone while connected to a PC, either via USB cable or Bluetooth
  3. Pre-installed – Game is preloaded onto the device by the original device manufacturer
  4. Mobile browser download – Game is downloaded directly from a mobile website

Mobile games are platform and handset dependent and are mostly developed based on technologies such as Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Symbian OS, Adobe’s Flash Lite, DoCoMo’s DoJa, J2ME, BREW, WIPI, iPhone OS or Google Android platforms. Java (J2ME) being the most popular platform amongst the above.

How popular are Mobile games in India?

Based on a survey conducted early 2009. These are the responses which were collected and based on observations and analysis it was found that men play games on their phones more often (57% play at least once a week) and for longer duration, as compared to Women. 55% of men play for an hour or longer every week.

Mobile Games statistics in India

Mobile Games statistics in India

 

 

Duration of Play

Duration of Play

 

 

 

Mobile game providers in India

There are several players (includes device manufacturer, service providers and content aggregators) in India providing mobile games. Some of the  mobile game developers in India are smackall, Icreon communication, Nextware Multimedia, DevelopmentIndia etc and content (games) aggregators  are Indiagames, Mauj, Hungama, rediff Mobile, Zapak etc. Almost all device manufacturers have games inbuilt on mobile phones.

More details on what games are hosted by these players will be discussed in the next blog.  So please stay connected to learn more on mobile games and mobile gaming industries in India.