UK cell phone owners spend more on games than ringtones
by John Bardinelli 
{ Jun 5th 2007 at 1:20PM }
A recent market study revealed that consumers in the U.K. are spending more money on downloading games than ringtones, music, or videos. Research firm GfK M² estimates the mobile gaming market is worth nearly four times the current value of music downloads and eight times the video download market.Surprisingly, much of this growth has taken place over the last year, says GfK. In 2006 there was "less activity in the mobile gaming market as well as poor phone functionality, limited game offerings and perceived high prices". Even though most game downloads in the U.K. go for £5 or more, gamers seem happy to pony up the cash. It's only a matter of time until free ringtone sites convert their annoying banner ads and "give away" cheesy game knock-offs.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Crono @ Jun 5th 2007 1:38PM
So do I. Buying ringtones is stupid, especially for what you pay.
Rob Accomando @ Jun 5th 2007 1:54PM
Games cost 4-5 times more than ringtones. I wonder if that's a factor. Hmmm. Anyway, I think most cell phone games are overpriced for how crappy they are (there's a few exceptions). How do they know we're happy paying that much?
Anam @ Jun 5th 2007 2:12PM
Games cost more and you only need one ringtone if you know what you want.
ssuk @ Jun 5th 2007 2:26PM
In the UK many people just convert music they have on their PC rather than buying tones off companies like Jamster, which were made very unpopular after their adverts on TV and the crazy frog... Plus, we're not stupid enough to buy music twice, even if big companies don't like us doing it.