Disqus
EA VP of European publishing, Javier Ferreira, believes that subscription models can work for mobile games and help drives sales….
For the UK I am not so sure – as The Inquirer neatly points out, the whole pullava regarding Mr C. Frog and his irritating ringtone really did alientate end-users as regards paying subscriptions for Mobile-related digital products.
Actually, tangent time…. more insiduous than ringtone “selling by subscription” are these “non-entity” SMS services now ,which provide you with some (obviously random) piece of information on a daily basis, in return for high fees – has anyone else seen these outside of UK?
The Ads for them tend to be prevalent on music channels, and say something like “find out daily who your future husband/wife might be” – for £4.50/week!
Did anyone do the math and see that comes to well over £20/month?? That’s more than a lot of Mobile tariffs! And at least you get a handset with those!
Anyhoo, I digress. EA are keen to revive subscriptions with a mix of flat-rate data from operators, and good marketing.
My take: people hate paying for a service they are not getting – so it better work first time, every time, if they are going to do it!
[Via: The Inquirer]
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
