I got some news in from Jens Lauritzon, MD of Accumulate UK (that’s him above). I’m really, really liking the Accumulate concept. First, though, let’s have a bit of background…
Imagine the scene – you’re a 15 year old in Thailand on a PAYG deal and you’ve just got a new phone. You’ve been playing a game that you found on the device (i.e. it was pre-loaded) and you really like it so you want to buy it.
But first you need to find it, so off you go onto the portal or deck or club or whatever (remember, this isn’t an iPhone, so no App Store) and there are 10 games with a similar name. You might stop there, but you persevere. Then once you’ve found it you click to buy it and you don’t have enough credit.
By the time you’ve topped up you can’t be bothered with all the hassle and so you just play the free demo until you get bored of it.
That’s the scenario that happens all the time and the one that Accumulate is trying to change. And by changing create more revenues for everyone involved – operator, publisher, developer etc.
Accumulate’s Flexion wrapper provides consumers like our 15 year old a proper retail experience for mobile games and apps. In so doing it gives operators, device manufacturers, retailers and publishers the ability to maximise distribution, penetration and ARPU. Rather than having to create multiple demos or variant price versions of the same content, Flexion allows the full version to be pre-loaded or downloaded and then a range of purchasing options can be presented. All Flexion enabled games or applications also include a fully dynamic shop front allowing for further up-selling of content.
Now they’ve signed a deal with TCT Mobile so that the pre-loaded content on ALCATEL handsets will be wrapped. The first handset it will launch on is the Android powered OT-980. They’ve also got existing deals with people like Sony Ericsson, Orange and 3UK.
As Jens points out: “More and more people are looking to wrap content, giving customers a better experience and making more money for the industry.”
Yup. Love it.
I’m looking forward to hearing more about this. I think it’s a brilliant way ahead and I hope it’ll help all parties concerned.