Telephia: Poker Game Titles Dominate the Top Slots on Cell Phone Decks

The latest report from Telephia shows that "more than 20 percent of the top deck slots across the major carriers are occupied by poker game titles. During February and early March, the top four carriers in the U.S., (Cingular, Verizon, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile) had at least two different poker titles on their top 15 bestsellers list, and three out of four carriers had at least one poker title in their "featured" deck. According to Telephia, Card/Casino mobile game titles represent 17 percent of the total revenue share for mobile games with an average price paid of $3.85 per game in January 2006."

Telephia measures "change in positions for mobile game titles across 12 different decks for top carriers, providing information on current game position, number of weeks on specific decks, and changes in rankings from week to week."

Kanishka Agarwal at Telephia said, "Most cell phone decks are updated weekly, if not more frequently and it is important for content providers to understand how the shifting, dynamic environment impacts their bottom line. Cell phone real estate is valuable property and location can make or break the success of a game title."

Table 1: Top Mobile Game Genre by Revenue Share (U.S.)
------------------------------------------------------------
Genre Category       Revenue Share (%)   Average Price Paid
------------------------------------------------------------
1. Puzzle/Strategy                   29%              $4.69
2. Card/Casino                       17%              $3.85
3. Action/Adventure                  13%              $4.37
4. Sports/Racing                     12%              $4.44
5. Trivia/Word                       10%              $3.38
------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Telephia Mobile Game Report, January 2006

Of more recent note, Telephia saw "a spike in mobile Winter Olympic Games titles, peaking with eight titles appearing in the top slots of game decks during the second week of the Olympics and declining during the next three weeks in March . Concurrently, the number of NCAA basketball titles in the top deck slots started to increase at the beginning of March, just in time for March Madness." According to the Telephia, "Sports/Racing titles comprised 12 percent of the total revenue share, securing a top five placement by genre category with an average price paid of $4.44."

Table 2: Weekly Change in Sports Mobile Game Titles on Top Game
 Decks (U.S.)
------------------------------------------------------------
Week Ending               Olympic Titles         NCAA Titles
------------------------------------------------------------
      2/17/2006                   7                   0
      2/24/2006                   8                   0
       3/3/2006                   6                   0
      3/10/2006                   3                   2
      3/17/2006                   2                   3
------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Telephia Deck Monitoring Report, February-March, 2006