Guitar Hero

Can developers solve the discovery dilemma?

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:59:59 -0400

Can developers solve the discovery dilemma?

Does the answer to the mobile discovery dilemma rest with developers? Verizon Wireless thinks so. At last week's BREW 2008 event in San Diego, the operator's vice president of consumer product development Lee Daniels took the stage strumming an electric six-string to celebrate the breakthrough success of the Guitar Hero III Mobile game, but he struck an even deeper chord with attendees by promising Verizon will begin allowing developers a far more proactive role in promoting their own applications.

According to Daniels, mobile data now accounts for 23 percent of Verizon Wireless' combined revenue, and with data growth accelerating, the company will seek to tie together key drivers including enhanced merchandising, marketing and seamless access to the BREW platform across the device. Critical to the operator's plans: Improving discovery. "Distribution remains our focus, and we're opening up discovery via the web, mobile marketing and mass media," Daniels said. "New applications demand new responses to discovery. We need [developers] to take a bigger role in promoting your applications."

At last year's BREW event, Verizon Wireless' senior vice president of marketing and digital media John Harrobin admitted the operator was still struggling to integrate BREW Zone, which promised to open up retail possibilities to include content sales through the VZW.com website and other approved off-portal sites. "We are disappointed," Harrobin said at the time. "We want to sell more content but integration is harder than we expected." At BREW 2008 Daniels announced the BREW Zone integration is now complete, paving the way for a host of new merchandising opportunities: "We can now drive millions of transactions through the BREW ecosystem and move beyond the mobile phone."

Daniels added that in the third quarter, Verizon will introduce short code promotions to complement web sales of BREW applications, with a developer bulletin scheduled to follow within the next 60 days. Another innovation in the Verizon pipeline is hyperlinking, which Daniels said enables transaction growth by capitalizing on the increase of page view totals. New merchandising tactics like subscription pricing, variable pricing and value-added billing are also underway. All are steps in the right direction for an operator still finding it hard to make content not so hard to find. -Jason

QUICKLINKS: Intel to re-enter mobile phone market; Qualcomm builds a Plaza full of widgets;

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:59:55 -0400

> Intel to re-enter mobile phone market.

> Qualcomm builds a Plaza full of widgets.

> Guitar Hero Mobile III strikes it big at BREW Developer Awards.

> Skyfire Labs scores $13 million in Series B.

Guitar Hero III Mobile strikes it big at BREW Developer Awards

Thu, 29 May 2008 11:19:59 -0400

By Dan O'Shea

Befitting a collegial atmosphere replete with pool tables, foosball tables and vendor booths with microbrew taps, the BREW Developer Awards last night was a noisy affair at which an explosively popular video game brand added another notch to its guitar.

Guitar Hero III Mobile won Best Game Application and People's Choice Award. The game also would have won the award for loudest cheering section, had there been such an award. Over the happy hour chatter, it was difficult to hear Mitch Oliver, vice president of product management for Qualcomm Internet Services Mobile, and Kathy Braegger, senior product manager and head of developer relations, list some of the nominees, but it was never louder than the applause that erupted each time they mentioned Guitar Hero III Mobile, developed by MachineWorks Northwest for Hands-On Mobile.

The latest entry in the Guitar Hero series was released commercially by Verizon Wireless last December, and became an instant hit. Much of that awareness may be due to the brand itself, but MachineWorks still had to make sure the game could make a successful jump from the family room to the mobile phone. "We still had to make a design that translated well from the console to the handheld," said Andreas Vasen, general manager of MachineWorks Northwest, after accepting both awards. "We went to great lengths to get the sound exactly right."

Other award winners included:

Best Up and Coming Application: mSpot Make UR Tones, mSpot Inc.

Best Public or Private Sector Business Application: Farmer Friend, Sichuan Greatwall Software Technology Co. Ltd. of China

Best Location-Based Service Application: Where, uLocate Communications

Best Community/Social networking Application: Loopt, Loopt

Best Personalization or Infotainment Application: MLB.com GameDay Plus GameDay Audio, MLB Advanced Media

Kevin Mahoney, project manager, mobile for MLB Advanced Media, credited developer Gravity Mobile for its win, and said the content his team had to work with was the key. "Baseball fans really enjoy their content, and it's a natural for a mobile platform," he said. "Gravity Mobile did a great job for us."

John Wilson, director of uLocate Communications, an LBS development environment, said the win for Where in the LBS category comes at a time when LBS applications have turned a corner in consumer adoption, and put initially slow acceptance in the past. "We solved the adoption problem by going free to consumers," Wilson said. "In the next six to nine months, you will see more ad-supported revenue models for LBS applications."

He also said that uLocate's win at the BREW Developer Awards is a reflection of the developers that have been building applications based on its LBS development environment. "We've had the benefit of a very strong developer community, with over 1000 developers," he said. "The applications that underpin our success were written by other people, and the kudos really goes to them."