Welcome to the world of the iGamer

Blog

Jul 8th 2009 at 14:02 by Mark Ettle

2008 was an okay year in Mobile, consolidation in the mobile publishing space had seen fewer publishers competing for even more limited carrier deck space. Only recognisably branded games were getting any major traction on carrier decks, and this was the same across Europe and North America with a few exceptions here and there. It was fun but not that much fun for mobile gamers.

Then in July, along came Apple, dropping firmware 2.0 on the world and overnight creating a whole new mobile gaming platform and a whole new game-player was born, one that I like to call the iGamer; a year in the making and 10 years in the waiting - the new mobile gamer (aka mobile gamer 2.0).

The iGamer wants content, and wants it on the move. They'll play puzzle games, racing games, try a lot of new game IP (and buy it), have a laugh with a farting app, will show their friends a cool spirit-level app, and most importantly pay and browse for these Apps and games en masse.

The iGamer is the core demographic that every consumer brand wants; willing to use and more than willing to spend. The iPhone has found the "mass-middle-market" gamer, not too far to the casual left and not too far to the hardcore right, but inhabiting a perfect centre ground with both money and an iPhone in their pockets!

The potential for the iGamer market has always been here, mobile Apps and games have been around for ages, however finding them and getting them was a real effort (never mind playing some of them) and the mass market just couldn't be bothered with that effort. Apple arrived with the App Store and overnight content buying and delivery in the mobile space was changed forever.

Apple just proved again, as it did with iTunes, you just need to provide a platform and service that a) works seamlessly with your product and is easy to use and most importantly b) works seamlessly with your product and is easy to use! Apple didn't do this by accident or by magic, this was done by having a unique understanding of user-interface, interaction, design and implementation (you really can't overhype how well they designed and implemented it).

I'm not saying that the iPhone marketplace is 100 per cent perfect – it's not – but it's far better than pretty much everything else out there by a good factor.

What Apple have done in a year is simply staggering. Never mind the figures, there are now two commercial time frames relevant in the mobile content space – before iPhone and after iPhone. Every week there is an announcement about a "potential", "maybe", "could be" iPhone killer when the truth is that Apple are so far ahead in the mobile space that everyone else is just having enough trouble creating an iPhone-like contender never mind leaping ahead.

Now if only Apple can do what they've done with the iPhone with something in the living room, now that would be exciting!