Asia-Pacific mobile online gaming growth seen steady through 2009 - IDC

The market for mobile online gaming in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, will continue to see steady growth through to 2009, said IDC. "As mobile penetration in the (Asia-Pacific excluding Japan) region continues to rise, and as users continue to consume more feature-rich media, mobile online gaming will continue to experience growth," IDC analyst Jun-Fwu Chin said in a statement. Malaysia will see mobile online game users grow at a compounded annual rate of over 70 pct from 2004 to 2009. Singapore and China will see users grow at a rate of around 60 pct in the same period, IDC said. South Korea, which had the highest penetration of mobile online game users in 2004 at 6.9 pct of all mobile users, will see this rate reach 9.6 pct in 2009, IDC said.

The industry's development is being driven by the proliferation of high-resolution, affordable, Internet-ready handsets as well as more compelling game content, according to IDC. Regional consumption of mobile media such as ringtones will pave the way for mobile online gaming to become a mainstream activity, especially in countries with high technology adoption rates and high user bases, IDC said. But the technology research firm said that an imbalance between the revenue split between the game developers and the operators, as well as a mindset among users that mobile phones are merely communications devices remain obstacles to the sector's growth.

Source: Xinhua Financial Network (XFN) News

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Howard Sholkin
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