Monday, December 18, 2000		Article

Dogs and dinosaurs on mobile phones
by Julia Snoddy

THE Internet revolution promised many things, but very few persons predicted that it could turn the mobile phone into a virtual pet. By Christmas, a Scottish Internet entrepreneur hopes to be offering users everything from cats and dogs to turtles and dinosaurs. The concept is not new. The Japanese came up with the idea of nurturing pets for entertainment, but Dunfermline-based Digital Bridges claim to be the first to bring the critters to mobile phones.

Created by Kevin Bradshaw, a 31-year-old science graduate, Digital Bridges seems to have tapped a rich vein. The company has raised more than $ 14 million and will double in size from 35 employees to 70 over the coming months. The focus is to develop games for mobiles that can be played for short bursts throughout the day.

Mr Bradshaw came up with the mobile idea about three years ago when he was completely immobile — stuck in a traffic jam on a London motorway. The company’s founder aims to attract users like himself — cash-rich, time-poor.

Other bigger players are waiting in the wings, however. Sci Entertainment Group, the London-based computer games publisher, is launching games like Thunderbirds, Find a Blind Date, which matches romantics with their perfect partners, and Football Manager, that will use the mobile phone’s text messaging system — SMS.

Mark Knutton, chief operating officer of Sci’s mobile media, said: "The market is going to expand. It’s not a question of if, it’s when." Mr Knutton thinks the development of technology — especially third generation mobile phones, which will allow video images to be transmitted on mobile phones — will cause the market to take off.

Bigger guns have also made their presence felt. Nokia, one of the globe’s biggest phone-makers, wants to develop games as a way of encouraging customers to spend more time on their mobile phones.

It’s a boom area. Forecasts suggest by 2005 A.D. there will be 198 million mobile phone users playing wireless games in Western Europe and the US — generating $6bn.

Many analysts are wary, however. Peter Joseph, an analyst at Peel Hunt stockbrokers, accepts that it is potentially a huge area, but believes it is too early to say what will happen to the sector and who the big winners and losers will be. "The mobile games industry is at the earliest stage it could be," he says.

— By arrangement with
The Guardian