musings of a social architect

A brief respite from my work binge

Sorry for the long delay in posting -- I've been swamped with work, I've barely had time to come up for air. It's still crazy-busy in my work life, but it's all good -- I'm luckyy enough to be working on fabulous projects for top-notch clients, I'll be sure to share more when these projects are public. Until then, expect light posting over the next few weeks.

In the meantime, here's an item from Ringtonia that caught my eye today. File this under "users will always surprise you with their ingenuity."

Remember the teenager repellent called Mosquito I wrote about a few days ago, the ultrasonic device that emits a sound only audible to teenagers? Shopkeepers in England have been installing them in order to prevent anti social youths from hanging out in front of their stores.

Well now techno-savvy pupils have recorded the ultra-high sound - audible only to under-20s- onto their cell phones, and are now receiving calls and text messages in class - without teachers having the faintest idea of what is going on.

The kids call it Teen Buzz, and it's spreading it from phone to phone via text messages and Bluetooth.

Social interaction trumps computer graphics

Interesting post today in the Business 2.0 Blog about the shift in gamer's behavior. Basically, the writer asks this question: are online activities like hanging out in MySpace and IMing with friends cutting into gamers' time, and thus helping to drive down videogame sales? From the post:

Cowen & Co. analyst Lowell Singer seems to think so.  From a note he sent out yesterday:

    Consensus View: The current softness in video game software sales is temporary, driven by insufficient supply of the Microsoft Xbox 360, and a lull before the introductions of Sony's PS3 and Nintendo's Revolution (Wii). Gamers will resume purchases of software as soon as they can purchase a next-generation console. Hardware and software growth in the next cycle will be robust.

    Our View: Our proprietary survey of video game players suggests that gamers' behavior has changed dramatically over the past year. Gamers are spending less time playing console video games, and more time playing computer games online, using the Internet for non-gaming activities and enjoying their iPods. This makes the competition for gamer's time and spending more challenging for hardware and software manufacturers. ... hardware and software growth in this cycle is likely to be less robust than expected and experienced in previous cycles.

Women in Mobile interview

Rudy De Waele recently interviewed me for the Women in Mobile series. The interview came out great - check it out!

Mobile game sales stagnating

Via MocoNews, I found this report  detailing the stagnation of mobile game sales, as measured by survey. In a nutshell, the report says that “pricing, choice and lack of interest were the top reasons cited by players of downloaded games in the U.S., U.K. and Germany as the reasons they did not buy another game in the month of March” People are not finding games that appeal to them -- and they think the games are too expensive. The report also supports the oft-cited idea that women play mobile games as much as men, but are much less likely to buy them. Much good data in the report, so check it out if you're in the mobile games industry.

Personally I also think that the interface for mobile games is a BIG reason why people don't buy more. It's totally ridiculous that you can't conveniently try out games before you buy them. Yeah, many phones come with a few pre-loaded demos - but you should be able to easily try out ANY game and see if you like it. PLUS, it's just too darn hard to figure out how to purchase and download a mobile game. I'm a total geek, and even I get confused when I try to download a mobile game. Combine that with subscriptions that are impossible to figure out how to unsubscribe from, and you've got a sector that's filled with consumer barriers.

This is why I don't have all my eggs in the mobile game basket. I'm still doing  mobile game design & development, and I've got some great projects going - but I'm also working on Web projects, and even a next-gen console game. Just call me the multi-platform mama :-)