Nokia exec touts mobile gaming growth

The world is headed towards a mobile future, according to Kay Grunwoldt, head of title marketing at Nokia.

Grunwoldt was the keynote speaker for the 2008 Dubai World Game Expo, which officially opened today and will last until October 30, 2008.

At the presentation, global mobile phone usage and behaviour was revealed based on Nokia’s Smartphone 360 study conducted last year that involved several thousand people.

“It’s interesting to see that voice usage is only 12% of all the usage on the devices,” commented Grunwoldt, adding that “the rest of the time, they are browsing, playing games, using applications, email, multimedia, and so on.”

52% use mobile devices for browsing, 37% for messaging and 16% for multimedia purposes.

Only 4% however use their mobile phones for gaming, which Grunwoldt believes is good news as it offers “a tremendous opportunity for everyone in the mobile game business to take up, because there’s obviously a need to make this area of mobile more attractive to gamers.”

The study also revealed that most people engage in mobile gaming while on the move but 30% also play mobile games when at home.

With no shortage of gamers around the world, the mobile gaming industry is set to grow. “There are figures floating around that by this year, we’re going to break the 3 billion dollar mark in mobile gaming revenue, which is amazing,” added Grunwoldt.

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