Superb synergies exist between passionate game developers and a very vocal gaming population. Both are pushing the technology envelope for wireless data transfer faster than boring old e-commerce. No doubt, developments are moving more rapidly than they once did for the stalwart desktop PC. As a result, mobile entertainment leaders are smiling at the prospects of a rosy wireless future.

"Wireless games push the development of a variety of technologies, both in the handsets and in the networks," notes Mitch Lasky, CEO of JAMDAT Mobile, a provider of content and services to enable wireless entertainment. Lasky believes games have always pushed desktop technology boundaries. Just take a look at streaming video, 3D graphics, sound, and artificial intelligence, to name a few practical areas of focus, says Lasky, pointing out how such developments found their roots in a burgeoning consumer interest in games.

An Historical Comparison
When distributed processing initiatives spawned the first desktop personal computers, end-users embraced these new devices for the simplest of activities. Eventually, PC technology advanced to the WYSIWYG world by way of application needs like fonts and spreadsheet graphs. Similarly, initial Web browsing was purely straight text (Lynx) just like early word processing (Wordstar).

"I maintain that parallel happens no matter what the device," adds Jason Robar, lead program manager for InfoSpace, a cross-platform Internet infrastructure provider. New devices are often introduced in black and white, in text only with no multimedia support. Then users demand more. Robar compares the current development status of the mobile Internet, with its low level of interactivity, to the development status of the early desktop PC. Robar believes gaming must make technological waves to maintain user interest in the wireless Internet.

Not Soup Yet
Gaming applications popularity transcends both age and income demographics. Gaming also has a large and growing user base. Content publishers predict that games will become the most popular type of application for mobile telephone users.

Greg Costikyan is chief design officer and co-founder of wireless games platform and publishing company Unplugged Games. He says current mobile handsets, which are built on "passive microbrowsers," are inefficient for truly interactive gaming activities. Plus, Costikyan sees wireless technology in need of advancements in two related areas: media displays and application management.

Certainly, businesses won't do much to change things, especially if most users continue to push small blocks of data, such as email, to each other. If all the user wants is a simple text-based alert telling him the closing price on a stock, a two-inch screen with text is just fine, says Costikyan. Certainly, mobile phone users can play games by simple text messaging applications, but they're limited in scope. Once the mobile user expresses an interest in a better experience, the bar raises for what's acceptable in wireless data transfer and related applications.

The Tail Wagging The Dog
While gaming continues to foster advances in mobile technology, the proliferation of new devices and multiple platforms will equally challenge product development plans for content developers.

"It's not just games that push the technology envelope. It's anything that really takes interactivity," Robar clarifies. Robar believes once developers target a device -- for example, a PC on a cable modem or Web TV, for example -- the technology focus changes. Currently, developers are creating games for every possible type of access and device.

Unplugged Games' Costikyan looks ahead to those budding advances game developers will "take enthusiastic advantage of, but which the carriers and handset manufacturers aren't yet thinking (much) about" -- the mixing of voice and data. At present, it's impossible to mix them, he says, but if wireless games could grasp that technological advantage, Costikyan explains, by allowing users to chat with friends while playing with them, wireless games would have a "strong technical advantage over PC-based games."

With both media giants and users clamoring for better wireless connectivity, better interaction, and improved data transfer, it's difficult for carriers and manufacturers alike to anticipate which developments should be given top priority.

"Hard core gamers tend to be early adopters of new technologies, which makes them a key constituency for new wireless devices," claims JAMDAT's Lasky. Telecommunications and content companies might consider tapping into the gaming community for insights into what should be next on the wireless technology horizon.

Article COPYRIGHT 2001 M-CommerceTimes