Page 196 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

6.5 Mobile Entertainment, Gaming, Consumer Services, and Mobile Marketing 179

Mobile Streaming Music and Video Providers • Number of players. Solo play or multiplay (from few to
many players)
Apple is the clear leader in the digital distribution of music • Social network-based. Using smartphones, people can
and video. Since 2001, Apple has offered consumers the play games available in social networks, such as FarmVille
ability to download songs and videos from the Apple iTunes on Facebook.
store. iTunes customers purchase billions of songs annually.
Other major Internet music providers are spotify.com, you- Several blogs provide information and discussions about the
tube.com, and pandora.com. Note that cell phones today current state of the mobile gaming market, including various
can display analog TV (popular in developing countries). game offerings, as well as the technologies and platforms used
Smartphones can display any programs offered on the to develop the games. One of the best is pocketgamer.biz.
Internet. Note that with their Dish Anywhere mobile app, The drivers of the popularity of mobile games are:
Dish Network works anywhere customers can access the
Internet through their smartphone or tablet, and with their
Sling Technology, customers can watch live TV or DVR con- • Increasing spread of mobile devices. The more people
tent on their iPhone, iPad, Android, and Kindle Fire (see
use smartphones, the more people will play e-games.
dish.com/technology/dish-anywhere). Netflix has a free • The inclusion of games in social networks, and par-
app for its subscribers to watch TV shows and movies
ticularly on Facebook.
streaming from Netflix on their mobile device (e.g., iPhone, • The streaming of quality videos is improving. The
iPad, Android). See get.it/netflix. Finally, Amazon.com pro-
quantity is also increasing.
vides free access to their Prime member to a large collection • The support for the gamification movement.
of videos.
• The ability of vendors to generate money from ads
attached to games.
• Technological improvements for downloading com-
Entertainment in Cars
plex games.
• The availability of free games online.
Entertainment is coming to cars directly from the Internet.
For example, in March 2014, Apple announced that it is
teaming up with a major car maker for its CarPlay system.
The system enables iPhones to plug into cars so drivers can The potential size and growth of the overall online gam-
request music with voice commands or with a touch on a ing market is enormous. This explains the large number of
vehicle dashboard screen. For details, see Liedtke (2014). companies involved in creating, distributing, and running
JVC (“Experience Apps in a New Mobile Way”) allows you mobile games.
to connect an iPod to a JVC receiver and “watch it come
alive with your favorite apps.” The JVC feature works with Hurdles for Growth
compatible car receivers and apps only. For more about JVC
and its mobile features for cars, see www3.jvckenwood. Although the market is growing rapidly, game publishers
com/english/car/applink. Future opportunities include car (especially in China and India) are facing some major hurdles.
diagnosis, driver health monitoring, usage-based insurance, For example, there is a lack of standards, lack of different
and even parental alerts. Some car brands already provide types of software and hardware, and increasing costs. The
communication, telematics, social networking, and mobile newest generation of games requires advanced capabilities
commerce. available only in higher-end mobile devices and with at least
3G networks. The ad spending in mobile games has remained
low, but it is growing.
Mobile Games To address these hurdles, game publishers are focusing
their attention on Apple’s iPhone and iPad and on similar
A wide range of mobile games have been developed for differ- popular devices.
ent types of players. The vast majority of players use smart-
phones. Many computer games can be played on mobile devices.
For example, trading card games like “Magic: The Gathering” Mobile Gambling
are online or plan to be (see accounts.onlinegaming.wizards.
com). Mobile games can be classified according to: Unlike some of the other forms of mobile entertainment, the
mobile gambling market has a high demand but also some
• Technology. Embedded, SMS/MMS, Web browsing, unique hurdles. First, mobile gambling requires two-way
J2ME, BREW, native OS financial transactions. Second, online gambling sites face