Mobile Phone Games World

Nokia have today released more information on the eagerly awaited N-Gage application. The expected release date is now set for November 2007 although some new N series phones will come prepackaged with a demo of the software.

Also announced today are details of phones that will initially be compatible with the N-Gage software and these are:

• Nokia N73
• Nokia N81
• Nokia N81 8GB
• Nokia N93
• Nokia N93i
• Nokia N95
• Nokia N95 8GB

To herald the new launch, the N-Gage website has also been redesigned.

Games that will initially be available are set to include:

• Hooked on: Creatures of the Deep
• Asphalt 3: Street rules
• Snakes Subsonic
• Mile High Pinball
• Brothers in Arms
• The Sims 2: Pets
• Midnight Pool 3D
• Pros Series Golf
• Space Impact Kappa Base
• Dogz
• World Series of poker
• ONE
• Block Breaker Deluxe
• Brain Challenge
• System Rush:evolution
• Bounce Boing Voyage

Cambodia has banned the 3G technology over fears of porn and seduction. This report from the English Peoples daily has the low down:

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced a 10-year ban on the “3G” mobile phones on Friday, after his wife Bun Rany and the wives of several other top government officials petitioned him to do so, warning that the phones could be used by women to seduce men with pornography.

This is a very different stance from other governments who have made a lot of money from the 3G network auctions. The delay is until an “appropriate time in the future when the social morality is improved.”

The Hong Kong telephone company PCCW has started broadcasting TV to its 3G network

For trial users, this service covers the underground network (great place to reach a captive audience) but should spread to all of Hong Kong by the end of June.

There are 110,000 trial subscribers who can view a Cantonese-language Business News Channel and other news and sports content, with other entertainment content following.

Catching up on some recent news, Sony Ericsson and Google have announces (28 February 2006) that new Sony Ericsson phones will incorporate Google search as a default, as well as Blogger computability.

The first phones expected to have this technology will be the K610 UMTS phone and new flagship imaging handsets, the K800 and K790, expected Q2 2006.

There will be Google icons in the phone software taking users straight to Google Web Search.

The integration of blog capabilities and photo blogging at that, sounds more interesting, but limiting the provider to Google’s Blogger application would seem to offer more to Google than it does to users.

In a not unrelated story, Google are also trumpeting their new phone friendly search service which removes parts of the web page they (Google that is) feel is less relevant.

Is this the start of Search Engine Censorship or is a better user experience offered?

Following on the results of the Mobile TV pilot in the UK, Mokia have reported on trials in Spain and France, where 55% and 68% respectively said they would pay for services.

Given that this trial group was probably predisposed to the service (otherwise why would they participate in the trial), these figures seem low. Almost 75% of the participants in the Spanish trial said they would reccomend the service to friends.

The price point seems to besomewhere between €7 and €10 per month.

Many users in the trials watched mobile TV within their homes, with almost half of those taking part in the French and Spanish pilots claiming to mainly watch mobile TV at home.

That will possibly reassure employers, worried that not only will employees be texting, and calling on their paid time, but now they can watch TV as well.

The Nokia N92, together with their Mobile Broadcast Solution 3.0 will be available in the summer 2006, but with estimates from Informa that there will be 50.97 million DVB-H devices sold globally by 2010, there is still some way to go.

BenQ-Siemens was formally launched yesterday 17 January 2006, with possibly the most annoying website they could have conceived.

That aside, BenQ are continuing their aggressive push to dominate the telecomms market with a goal that this new mobile handset division should be financially stable by the end of 2006.

The merger sees BenQ taking the dominant position merging the “ex-handset” business of Siemens and looking to expand the 3G and multimedia mobile phone offerings.

Studies show appetite for mobile phone TV but show that the technology still has a way to go. 16 TV channels were made available to 375 02 users who demoed the service on modified Nokia 7710 phones.

These tests were ‘overwhelmingly favourable’ but suggest that users would only be willing to £8 per month and not the £10 monthly charge Vodafone, 3 and orange are currently charging.

Different modes of delivery are also being explored, to get around the problem of using up bandwidth on the mobile networks, including a more traditional TV receiver and IP internet technology.

The O2 system, based on the Nokia DVB-H protocol, should not be expected any time soon however, as it uses a radio spectrum that will not be available until analogue TV is switched off - in 2012.

No new N-Gage until 2007 due to poor sales to date.

As the N-Gage has failed to come close to Nokia’s hoped for 6 million unit sales, further development plans seem to be on hold, with Nokia concentrating instead on mobile music and mobile tv.

With the N-Gage technology being incorporated into Series 60 phones, game development shouldn’t suffer, and there is no indication that the current model will be discontinued.

Search technology comes to the camera phone by way of sophisticated image recognition techniques, which would allow advertisers to interact with their intended audience.

By having their intended audience snap a picture of an image in the advert and send it to the advertiser, they can reply with specific content, say a ringtone or mp3 download, or movie trailer.

The potential for Massive Multiplayer Mobile Gaming applications are not difficult to see; create a mobile game around your advertising and you have a self perpetuating viral marketing opportunity.

Nokia have announced three new N Series phones, the most exciting looking of these being the N92, with a built in DVB-H receiver (Digital Video Broadcast, the H standing for Handheld). This will enable viewing and recording of live TV, at any time.

The device will have a 2.8″ QVGA screen with 16 million colours.