TELECOMS & MOBILE
Firm hopes to liven up mobile games
18-12-2000
by Aoidin Scully
US company CellPoint Inc. has signed a deal with Swedish game developer It's Alive! to develop location-based mobile games on the CellPoint Mobile Location System.
The games can be played with any SMS-enabled phone or a WAP handset in an interactive mode with two or more players.
"Today's mobile games are too dull. We want to create games which appeal to the 'Playstation generation' by bringing the mobile phone to life. Certainly a cell phone can't really be compared to a modern game console. The key is to use the phone-specific features such as mobile positioning," said Tom Soderlund, CEO of It's Alive.
The co-operation between It's Alive! and CellPoint is based on early game testings on the CellPoint Mobile Location platform. After the tests, the It's Alive! games will be integrated with CellPoint's platform and offered as an integrated package to mobile operators.
"We believe that games will have a great impact in the future on younger people's attitudes to location services and the mobile Internet," said Fredrik Wettergren, Project Manager at CellPoint.
CellPoint's end-to-end cellular location technology works in unmodified GSM networks and uses standard GSM or WAP phones and standard Internet services. Several commercial applications have already been developed, including Resource Manager for mobile resource management, iMate for location-sensitive information and Finder, an application for locating friends and family.
Subsidiary Unwire's programmable telemetry terminal servers are also integrated with the CellPoint System Platform to enable a range of telemetry applications for wireless remote management and control.
The company, which has subsidiary operations in Sweden, Great Britain and South Africa, recently closed a USD10 million financing deal with Chicago-based private fund Castle Creek Technology Partners. The funds will be used to expand market operations and develop the business, which has grown from a staff of 30 to over 100 in the last 12 months.
Though Cellpoint's share price reached its lowest level over the past year recently, at USD7.75 per share, a spokesperson attributed this to the poor performance of the Nasdaq generally.
"High-tech shares have taken a hell of a battering over the last month or so, but by and large we seem to have moved, percentage wise, a lot less than other people," he said.
He attributed this to confidence in the business and in the development of the mobile location market place, and added: "It's a very exciting market to be in."
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