Mobile gaming worth $10 billion by 2013

Juniper Research says the retail value of the global mobile games market is expected to rise from $5.4bn in 2008 to more than $10bn in 2013, although the potential for growth in many key markets is being dampened by poor marketing and limited on-portal revenue share for publishers. They say the Apple iPhone could end up being a popular choice for game publishers due to the revenue share offered by Apple, which could see the end of Java games. In addition, the volume of paid-for mobile game downloads has flatlined across North America and Western Europe - a phenomenon that was reported in February by M:Metrics. [Press release]

Mobile search more popular than ever

The latest report from comScore M:Metrics says the number of people using mobile internet searches has grown by 30% in the UK over the last 12 months. Growth was 38% across Western Europe and 68% in the USA. 20.8 million US mobile phone customers and 4.5 million European mobile customers searched the web from their handsets in June 2008. The UK leads Europe and the USA with 9.5% of UK mobile customers using mobile search. [Press release]

Mobile map usage up 72% in UK

The latest comScore M:Metrics report says maps on mobile phones are becoming increasingly popular. Year-on-year growth for the three-month period ending May 2008 shows that 4.5% of UK mobile phone customers have used mobile maps, which is a 72% increase. Overall, 3% of Europeans and 8% of American mobile subscribers access maps from their mobiles. In the US, the iPhone is the favourite choice for map users, while it's the Nokia N95 in Europe. When it comes to software, 73% of customers accessing maps are doing it via their mnobile browser in the US, compared to 57% in Europe. SMS services account for 24% in Europe and 23% in the US. [Press release]

European picture messaging has increased by 16% this year

Picture messaging has grown by 16% in Europe over the last 12 months... and by 60% in the USA, where the MMS trend started later. The latest M:Metrics Benchmark Study (published by comScore) also showed that US picture messaging usage is higher than average in July and August, while UK usage is higher in December. 78% of Europeans and 66% of Americans now own a camera phone, with nearly a quarter of all US mobile users and about a third of Europeans having sent or received photos in April this year. [Press release]

36% of young(ish) men are using mobile media

A survey from M:Metrics has revealed that 36% of 18 to 34-year-old men in Western Europe accessed mobile media (browsing and/or downloads) in February. In addition, 9% of men in this group responded to an SMS advert they received, versus an market average of 4%. [Press release]

Mobile game downloads are static

More people are playing mobile games than ever before, although the percentage of people downloading a new game hasn't increased in the last year, according to figures from M:Metrics. Nearly three-quarters of game-playing customers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States (surveyed in December 2007) played a game that was pre-installed. Just 8.8% of customers played a game they had downloaded to their phone (up a mere 0.1% from the previous year) and only 3.3% of mobile customers in the USA and Europe downloaded a game in December 2007 (compared with 3.6% in December 2006). [Source: Cellular-News.com]

Mobile TV viewers are switching off

New research carried out by M:Metrics for Tellabs has shown that the number of current mobile TV users is growing... but the number of people who've stopped using the service is growing faster. Current users in Europe and North America grew by 36% last year, while former mobile TV users grew by 68%. The UK had the highest proportion of ex-users (from a total of 34,000 surveyed in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and the USA) saying that quality and reliability were their reasons for ditching the service. The study claimed that networks could make an extra $270 million if they sorted out quality and reliability issues. [Tellabs press release]

Up to 20% of phone users listen to mobile music

An average of 10.7% of mobile phone customers across the USA and Western Europe are listening to music on their handsets, according to a report from M:Metrics. Listenership ranged from 5.7% in the United States to 20% in Spain. As you'd probably expect, most people are 'sideloading' - sharing music from their PCs or acquiring it from friends - and not downloading it directly to their phones. The report says an average 83% of mobile music is shared. [Press release via Marketwire.com]