Twenty years ago it was easy to define the profile of a “gamer.”  It was predominantly 18-24 year old males sitting in a darkened den for hours on end, moving only their fingers and wrists unless it was to answer the door when the pizza delivery guy arrived.  However, smartphones and tablets made gaming mobile, and mobile gaming revolutionized the entire gaming industry.

(Image Source: polygon.com)

Among other factors, advances in smartphone technology certainly helped bring mobile gaming into the spotlight and popularize it – smartphone screen sizes getting larger didn’t hurt either. What is the average profile of a mobile gamer today? It’s difficult to pinpoint.  There is a multitude of categories.  Some are simple statistics such as age and gender.  Then there are categories based on behavioral traits such as purpose of gaming or dedication spectrum levels. Some statistics are surprising, but it is no surprise that as more people join the mobile gaming community, mobile game app revenues will inevitably overtake console games.

Age and Gender – Not What You’d Expect

While console gaming is still lingering in the realm of males 18-24, mobile gaming has attracted an entirely different demographic. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has the average age of the mobile gamer at 31, up from last year’s 30 and the largest group demographic is now 18-35. 

(Image Source: businessinsider.com)

Even more interestingly, when you look at the genders, the actual average age of a woman mobile gamer is 43.  It may come as no surprise than that the most frequent gamers play social games, over 31% of them in fact.  Also, as women are social creatures, over 56% of frequent gamers play with others, mostly friends.

According to another worldwide study by Flurry Analytics, women also make 31% more in-app purchases and spend 35% more time on gaming apps then men.  Additionally, while women to men ratios are currently 48% to 52%, within the next 1-3 years, the number of women playing mobile games in every country will far surpass the number of men, getting to almost 2 to 1.

Why People Play the Game People Play

The purpose of gaming is another way to profile today’s gamers.  Again, there are multitudes of reasons why gamers game, but most come down to a few solid categories.  There is also a lot of overlap between these categories as well.

Gamers game to be social.  According to ESA, 31% of the games most frequently played on a mobile device are social games, and these games are played 45% of the time with friends.  For these people, it is not about winning as much as it is about playing the game with a friend that you wouldn’t have time to see otherwise. It’s about chatting up comments and bragging on social media.

(Image Source: getappsonpc.com)

When mobile apps added the feature of being able to post scores or wins on Facebook, they attracted an entire new generation of gamers. Those who used to play scrabble against the computer now played Words with Friends against 20 of their favorite contacts and a few randomly chosen folk as well. As of May 2016, Candy Crush Saga continues to be the most popular social game, with 10.91 million active players on Google Play and the App Store.

Gamers game to exercise their brain.  As the average IQ of the world is actually dropping, training and improving your mental capabilities is an important feature for just about everyone.  Puzzles, card games, casino games, question and specific “brain training” games make up the next highest frequently played game category with 14% of mobile games downloaded falling into it.

(Image Source: youtube.com)

Puzzle games require logic and planning to succeed.  Card games like poker sharpen the intellect by requiring and honing strategy, problem solving and decision making skills. All these factors activate the frontal lobe. Moreover, poker also promotes discipline and emotional control. Add to that the option to play multiple live games for real stakes with hundreds of thousands of players around the world and your intellect is put under real pressure to perform.

If puzzles and poker aren’t enough to stimulate the brain, brain trainer type apps are becoming all the rage as well.  It seems everyone is putting together teams of neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists to develop apps to improve your focus, logic, memory, emotional intelligence and more.  Even Mensa, the organization of people with IQs in the top 2% is on board with their own app to help you discover your own Mensa Brain Index.

(Image Source: thegoodshoppingguide.co.uk)

Gamers game to compete..  Even in social games, there is a winner.  After brain training games, the next most popular game genre are strategy and shooting games.  Whether you play an individual or an army, you are still looking to take the other guy down and be the champion. The last real category of most frequently played games are action games, with 5% of all frequent gamers playing.

This category may be the one carrying console gamers to the mobile platform.  Game of War – Fire Age and Mobile Strike were the top grossing mobile games in 2015, together totaling almost $3 million in daily gaming revenue.

What’s Your Level of Dedication?

The dedication spectrum is another category of gamer profiling. Game developers, the media and associated business divide gamers in categories based upon their dedication to gaming. There are five basic categories:

Newbie is a slang term for the novice of newcomer. This is actually a huge market as about 60,000 new gamers purchase or download a new game every day. New games are launched for beginners on every platform with detailed tutorials and multiple achievement levels to get a new game player in the mind frame for more advanced games.

(Image Source: forbes.com)

Casual Gamers comprise the largest group of gamers, with almost 48% of the gamer population falling into this category.  This is the person who needs to be able to pause or quit a game easily and want games that are less serious.  This person plays to kill time on the subway and to stay social with friends. This category is predominantly 35-45 and female. One of the most popular series of casual games ever to hit the market was The Sims.  The statistics from this game only proved that real life is overrated and it’s just better simulated – for some, at least.

Core Gamers and Hardcore Gamers are both enthusiastic about a variety of games.  The biggest difference between the two is that a core gamer plans his gaming around his schedule, and a hardcore gamer plans his schedule around his gaming. Core gamers are more serious about a variety of games than a casual gamer, and also have a sense of competition.  A hardcore gamer is dedicated to the action and competition, is involved in gaming communities and stays aware of all new gaming developments.  Hardcore gamers continue to primarily remain the 18-24 male demographic.

(Image Source: wegotdiscovered.com)

Professional gamers play for money, prizes or salaries.  While this category is relatively new to the mobile gaming community, it is infiltrating the marketplace as a result of mostly Japanese and Asian demand.  Recently, Sony announced its new company Forward Works, which plans to create professional gaming opportunities on mobile platforms.  This was most likely in response to Nintendo’s successful release of Miitomo in Japan.  It is likely professional mobile gamers could see the six-figure salaries that Major League Gaming has paid out to pro console players.

With over 500 new games launched for iOS and Android smart devices every day, the gamer profile continues to evolve as 15-20 million new gamers join the game pool every year. It is without a doubt that mobile devices have brought gaming to populations that would have never sat down in front of a console game. What does this mean to the future of gaming? Better yet, what does this mean to the future of people? 

 

LTE has changed both the way and the quantity in which smartphone users consume data nowadays and recent studies suggest that it will only continue to increase. With the likes of Netflix, Spotify and YouTube being used so frequently by users all over the world, it isn't really a surprise though.

The latest Ericsson Mobility Report indicates that the monthly data consumption rate will hit the 8.9GB mark by 2021 for the average smartphone user. Considering the fact that as of now, the average monthly data consumption for smartphone users is currently 1.4GB, that is a big hike!
According to the report, the huge change will be brought forth by the following factors.

1) A significantly more number of people will start using smartphones.
2) 4G LTE will become available in areas where it was previously unavailable.
3) At least some of the carriers will make 5G speeds available to the consumers by 2020.

As one would expect, North America and Western Europe tops the chart in this report as prime data consumers, followed by Central and Eastern Europe and South America. The types of content which will be most responsible for consuming all that data are predictably, video content and social networking.

Which app hogs the most data in your smartphone?

Author: Saikat Kar (Tech-journalist and enthusiast)

Apple's 3D Touch is a form of pressure sensitive response from the iPhone, which can be utilized to perform different functions. There was a lot of talk about the Force Touch technology being an integral part of the upcoming Android N on release, but those have faded out since a newer report suggested that it won't be available on Android N just yet. In the meanwhile, a group of engineers from the University of Michigan have come up with something even more advanced, called the ForcePhone software.

This application won't require displays that are pressure sensitive or any other special sensors in the smartphone to work. Every smartphone has a speaker and a microphone; the technology will simply use them to emit an ultrasound frequency which will cover the 18-24KHz range. This will somehow allow the user to bring up additional menus and options with ease, by simply pressing a little harder on the display panel. Apparently, Yu-Chih Tung, one of the co-creators, was inspired by Nolan's "The Dark Knight" movie, where Batman tracked the Joker by converting all smartphones within the city into a gigantic sonar-based tracking system.

If it does turn out to be as amazing as it sounds, then "3D Touch" will no longer be a premium feature that's limited to only the top-end, expensive smartphones which have all the hardware that money can buy. We will find out more in between June 27-29, during the MobiSys 2016 in Singapore, as that is where people will get to see the ForcePhone app in action for the first time.

Author: Saikat Kar (Tech-journalist and enthusiast)

The use of VPN or proxy servers is quite common as people around the world often use it to either get access to the services of Netflix or just to watch programs that would otherwise be locked in their region. Netflix is determined to stop this in hopes of limiting its users to only the services and shows that are offered in their respective geographical locations.

Netflix offers its services across 190 nations now and although it is good news for the company and its viewers, it also makes things extremely complicated. If the media rights to certain content are owned by a company in Australia, it is probably owned by a completely different company in the UK. This is what creates a lot of problem with licensing and thus the library of content for Netflix differs with the particular country it is providing its services to.

We imagine that Netflix is under pressure from the local media companies to limit user access unless they have already paid for broadcasting rights. Netflix has assured its users officially, that over the course of time, they will be able to minimize the gaps in between global content across several countries.

If you are still interested in seeing shows that are locked in your area, then we might have good news for you. Rumor has it that the new content restriction measures taken by Netflix works by detecting the IP address of the user. Therefore, it might be possible to still watch those locked shows if you just change your IP address through VPN. How well it works is debatable though.

Xiaomi is about to launch a new variant of its budget phablet, the Redmi Note 3. Although the original Redmi Note 3 was showcased back in November, the upcoming version is better. The Mediatek Helio X10 SoC was quite a beast in the budget segment in 2015, but now it is going to be replaced with an even more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 SoC.

The second change that Xiaomi is about to offer with its new Note is a significantly improved 16 megapixel camera sensor with f2.0 aperture, which is going to replace the previous generation 13 megapixel sensor on its back. These are significant changes that will enhance both the camera quality as well as the overall performance of the Redmi Note 3, both of which are usually high priorities for most smartphone users.

There will be a 16GB model with 2GB Ram and a 32GB model with 3GB RAM just as with the current Note 3. The 4050mAh battery should be more than sufficient to power the device for a whole working day at least, if not more. As far as pricing is concerned, we only know that the 16GB/2GB variant will be available for around $150 or RMB 999.

Among other Asian countries, Xiaomi has decided to launch the Redmi Note 3 v2.0 in India. In fact, a competition is on its way online right now as 100 Indian fans will get a chance to win the Redmi Note 3 if they can complete the 100 "missions" given to them. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 was already a great device within the budget segment and from what we know so far, it seems like it's about to get much better.

Source