14 DAY TRIAL // Japanese-Swedish phone maker Sony Ericsson will pack its future handsets with the Flexion technology from Accumulate UK, according to a global licensing deal the two companies signed and announced recently. According to Accumulate UK, Sony Ericsson becomes this way the first handset vendor around the world to include mobile games with Flexion on new mobile phones, based on the success Hutchison 3G UK has had.
As many of you might already know, it was only recently that mobile phones started to come to the market with pre-loaded games. Games are now seen as a necessary component of any mobile phone, yet they were only considered a means of cheering oneself up before. Full versions of games were present on handsets previously only after phone makers paid publishers license fees for them.
However, Accumulate UK's Flexion technology is meant to transform the costs handset makers register for having full game versions pre-loaded on their devices into a revenue stream. What it is meant to do is to make users curious about the content on their devices and allow them to try out games before they purchase them, while also offering them 'rent for the day' or 'have-a-go for 25p' options, the company states.
“We are delighted that Sony Ericsson has taken this step together with us. We have been preloading Flexion enabled games with operators for a while now with very good results. With the help of Sony Ericsson we will extend our reach significantly,” Accumulate's MD Jens Lauritzson commented on the agreement between the two companies.
The Flexion technology has been also designed so as to promote games similar to the ones pre-loaded on the handset, something that should end up in new trials and sales. According to Accumulate, this move is called 'on-device retailing.' The technology is to be included first on Sony Ericsson's Yari device, due for release before the end of the year.