Mobile 3D gaming revolution leaving Wintel behind

As Ben Kuchera is gearing up to report at Opposable Thumbs, one of the themes for this year's GDC is mobile gaming—and iPhone 3D gaming, in particular, is red-hot. And for good reason: some of the demos so far are amazing (I'll let Ben tell you about them as the embargoes lift), and it's nuts to think that this level of 3D performance is taking place on a tiny mobile device. But as I watch the mobile 3D action this week, one fact above all others bowls me over: this is a mass-market 3D revolution, with an installed base of millions—and it involves neither Intel nor Windows.

I've covered at some length the ARM offerings in this space, and why Intel won't have a shot at a real mobile phone form factor until sometime after transitioning to 32nm, but I've paid less attention to the software side of this equation. At a GDC session yesterday by the Khronos Group, a broad industry consortium working on the OpenGL, OpenCL, and other GPU-related APIs, I was surprised at just how little sway Microsoft has in the mobile 3D arena.

Sure, Microsoft has D3D Mobile, but the Windows Mobile platform also supports OpenGL ES—and if you're developing a 3D game right now for the mobile market, why wouldn't you just use OGL? Besides, Windows Mobile isn't exactly a hotbed of gaming activity. No, the mobile 3D revolution is, for now, an iPhone phenomenon, though it's entirely likely that this won't last.

At some point, Microsoft will have to get its platform act together, and hopefully in a way that ties in meaningfully with the Xbox Live ecosystem. If anyone could pick up the mantle of the original Nokia N-Gage concept and run with it, it's Redmond.

Palm, too, is a potential mobile gaming contender. The upcoming Pre is powered by a substantial media SoC, and I'm anxious to see what game developers will do with it. Pre also has a potential advantage on the control front, since it sports a special gesture region at the bottom of the screen.

The main issue with both WinMo and the Pre, though, is that they're focused squarely on business productivity and communication use cases. The Pre in particular, as the first mobile platform that presumes the existence of the cloud and the social web, puts most of its eggs in the networking basket. So much so that its software stack may have too much overhead to support processor-intensive 3D games. Palm may have to give game developers a separate set of APIs that put them closer to the hardware, in order to save on battery life and enable sufficient performance.

Even though Windows and Intel will be late to the mobile 3D party—and they'll probably each show up stag instead of as a couple—this doesn't necessarily put them at a crippling disadvantage. Mobile apps, games, and devices are fairly ephemeral compared to their desktop counterparts, demanding much less in the way of investment and commitment from either developers or end-users. What this means is that legacy issues are minimal, since as a developer you can just make the next round of games largely from scratch for the latest and greatest phone. So if and when Intel and Microsoft are ready to jump into mobile 3D gaming, if they can build it, developers and users will probably still come.
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Ojom Launches Its First iPhone Game

Ojom has announced the release of its first game specifically designed for the iPhone; adapted to drag, drop and twist just like the device. Maya, a mobile puzzler, has been adapted for the iPhone, and its Deluxe version was released in conjunction with the iPhone's Euro Launch via Jamster and Jamba, where it is currently exclusively available. Maya can be played through the integrated Safari browser and is absolutely free to iPhone users.

As people flock to the shops to pick up the much anticipated iPhone, the team at Ojom has modified Maya Deluxe to utilise the iPhone's touch-screen technology. Released earlier in the year as Maya ? Temple of Secrets, this puzzle game was one of Ojom's best selling games so far and is guaranteed to find a large group of new fans within the fast growing group of iPhone aficionados.

Just like the iPhone, Maya twists and flips as you make your way through the jungle via a series of mind challenging logic games. In the game you must solve a series of puzzles in your quest to find the Maya Temple hidden deep in the jungle. The story goes that, inside the temple, you will find a number of 'golden artefacts' that hold the key to an unsolved mystery. Collect the golden artefacts by solving the puzzles and unlock the secret of the Temple of Mysteries. You will be flipping and twisting the triangles with ease on the iPhone's touch screen and will be trying to master this game at every possible opportunity.
source: home.nestor.minsk.by
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T-Mobile Goes After the iPhone

NEW YORK T-Mobile rolled out a new TV ad campaign this week for its line of Shadow brand phones, which one analyst likened to a less-expensive version of the iPhone.

Positioned as "The Official Phone of Fun," the T-Mobile Shadow is being promoted as a name that's synonymous with easier communications, according to the company. Publicis in the West, Seattle, created the campaign.


The first spot airing shows how the Shadow can quickly access the Web to defuse an argument in real time. A subsequent ad shows a girl preparing her boyfriend with an on-phone slide show about all her quirky relatives prior to a family get-together. The spots conclude by pointing viewers to a new microsite, T-Mobileshadow.com.

"We expect them to do very well [with the Shadow]" said Ryan Reith, senior research analyst at consultancy IDC. "I think their offering is great in terms of bringing high-level functionality to a consumer focus."

Reith went on to explain that both T-Mobile and manufacturer HTC were "in the drawing room together, from day one," when the phone was being designed. The result was a phone "with features that consumers were looking for," he said.

Asked how the Shadow compared with Apple's iPhone, Reith said, "The price point is the difference. They offer the same functionality in a different sense." He also said the Shadow offers a scroll wheel and a "nice music interface," as well as voice dialing that's "very friendly on the surface."

Ads will appear on all the major networks, on high-profile shows such as Dancing With the Stars, House, CSI and Without a Trace, according to a rep at Publicis.

"We look at the Shadow as a phone-first device to provide fun, easy and rich communications," said T-Mobile's Michelle Webb. The slide-design unit sells for $149.99 with a two-year contract, she added. The iPhone currently retails for $399.

T-Mobile spent $595 million on ads in 2006 and $280 million in the first half of this year, per TNS Media Intelligence.
source: adweek.com