Gambling on Mobile Phones - Beyond Talk

By Gaming Industry Insights (gamingindustrystocks.blogspot.com)

As the mobile industry continues to soar, the applications and capabilities of handheld devices are evolving significantly. This evolution in my opinion is taking consumers further and further away from voice services.

Let's take a look at what is happening...In terms of gaming, mobile phones and subscriber plans now offer access to a plethora of games to fill your time, which since you are on the go is already a precious resource. Gambling, especially with the surge in popularity of Texas Holdem Poker, has allowed the obsessive nature of betting and casino life to flood the mobile arena. If gambling is not your ‘cup of tea' then perhaps you are one of the growing casual gamers who are enjoying a burst onto the scene of simplistic yet equally addicting game titles such as 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire', 'Tetris' and many others.

In addition, the accelerated growth of instant and text messaging has shifted how devices and users communicate. Handhelds have improved keyboard set-ups to make messaging easy to utilize, and consumers have become much more comfortable with the technology in part because it has been around for a while now and in part because of the popularity of messenger programs on the PC.

Devices have also embraced email, which has become the preferred choice of many for communication for businesses and consumers alike. The carriers are doing their part to promote data over voice with more affordable data plans and an increased number of downloads available to their subscribers from games, and ring tones to mobile search technology. This brings me back to my original point - with all the functionality and efficiency of data related services and mobile devices - who has time to talk?