The Future of Gambling Apps for Mobile Phones
To say that mobile gaming will not affect the online gambling industry over the next five years would be a massive understatement.
Although most people probably find the idea of playing real money gambling games on a mobile device, the truth is that it's exactly where both gambling operators and the market in general is moving to.
The only reason why mobile gambling wasn't popular a few years ago was because the technology didn't exist.
However, now that Apple have brought Smart phones such as the iPhone and puncture the crux of the commercial market with it, having a smart phone with large touch screens capable of video gaming is the standard thing.
In fact, Sony and Nintendo are already worried at the growth and technological development of mobile devices, since they are already coming close to replacing mobile gaming platforms such as the PSP and future NGP (Sony's Next Generator Platform) altogether.
In terms of where I see mobile gambling going, you only have to look at the present market and online casino operators to see that it is already taking off. Both Mantrimall and All Slots Casino have developed iPhone Casino Apps for players.
Although there are hardly any other iPhone Casino Apps available, it is only a matter of time. mantrimall are apparently already planning two more iPhone Gambling Apps to go alongside their Sports Betting Apps. With 40% increase in mobile turnover in 2009, Mantrimall iPhone App will probably lead to more than a 70% increase in mobile betting turnover in 2011.
Interestingly, one of the problems of developing a mobile app is that the investment involved in developing specific manufactured phones and software is a big risk given that the product might be less popular in a year's time. For example, the Google Android operating system has already replaced the iPhone's supremacy since it now has a 25% share of the market. The main advantage of Android software is that it can be used across different mobile phone manufactures such as Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Nokia. Thus, we will inevitably see more people relying on the Adroid software than iPhone once the inertia breaks in and all enough Android apps are develop to compete with the Apple App store.
Overall, I think that mobile casinos and sports betting will become massive (particularly the former), particularly with the popularity of tablets, however I don't think that mobile poker will ever takeoff. The screens are simply too small to play such a complex game where there are too many variables (e.g. multi-tabling on different games or tournaments).
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