Well there is if you listen to what M-Biz Global is saying – they reckon the ‘vanilla’ (a.k.a. SIM-free) handset market offers a stack of largely untapped cash for games publishers.
Apparently those handset vendors that are embedding it’s ‘Try-and-buy’ mobile software are reporting that about 40% of people purchase mobile games – and that’s a good hit rate, just in case you were wondering!
Currently M-Biz Global is shipping in all of Samsung’s ‘vanilla’ handset in 30 countries, with content providers like EA, Gameloft, and Digital Chocolate – basically a good number of the main players!
The maths for the $80m is that as SIM-free devices are about 30% of handset sales, then there’s £80m in revenue that (other?) manufacturers and publishers could be tapping – in EMEA alone!
As you might have guessed, the M-Biz Global TryNBuy service pre-installs games on to the handset that are restricted via levels or time – and then the option to purchase the full game through premium SMS.
Well, if the money is there, tap it up I say! I wonder how many other vendors ears’ will perk up to this news? Might we see a LOT more of the ‘try-before-you-buy’-type games going forward?
[Via: Mobile Entertainment]