Digital Bridges recently demonstrated the company's WAP push technology applied to its battleships clone at CTIA Wireless 2002 in Orlando, in collaboration with Openwave.
WAP Push allows users to be sent notifications, URLs, teasers and other information related to their subscribed - meaning users have to opt-in - WAP services. In the case of mobile gaming, this can make for a richer, more interactive and fun user experience by allowing the game to take the initiative in communicating with the gamer. For example, players can receive invitations to tournament play, high-score notifications, multi-player game availability or even messages regarding updates within persistent online games.
The demonstration done by Digital Bridges of WAP Push on Openwave's stand at CTIA, as applied to a battleships game, paves the way for the extension of the technology to a wide range of Digital Bridges WAP entertainment services, currently live with over 40 mobile operators and portals worldwide. Since launch 12 months ago, usage of Digital Bridges WAP games in several markets has grown from launch to reach approximately 2,000,000 game plays per month, with the average length of game session growing from 3-4 minutes to over 10 minutes in that same period. What WAP push adds to the picture, is that a service provider can now take the initiative and tell the user to play some more, or inform him or her that their opponent has just made a move in their game of chess.
The two companies also announced collaboration on a number of other fronts. Digital Bridges has confirmed it will be developing content for Download Fun, Openwave's content delivery solution for Communications Service Providers (CSPs), offering subscribers services for downloading a wide variety of media objects to their mobile handsets. Download Fun is a core part of the Platform Services of the Openwave Services OS.
Brian Greasley, the CEO of Digital Bridges, commented, "We are delighted to be working with Openwave to bring to market new technologies and approaches that make mobile entertainment more compelling, interactive and involving. Our product demonstration at CTIA is an excellent example of this, and a big step forward in the ongoing evolution of WAP gaming."
"We believe entertainment to be one of the key drivers that will increase adoption and repeat usage of the mobile Internet," said Sam Adler, manager of market development for Openwave Systems. "By incorporating technology such as WAP Push, Digital Bridges has created a mobile entertainment experience that is both appealing and interactive for the end user and importantly, easy to use. We are very happy to be working with Digital Bridges in creating a new generation of mobile Internet games titles."
Let the games begin.
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