Apple yesterday announced their next world-beating version of the trusty paper cup and string device – the iPhone 4S. It represents a slight upgrade on the current model and will be their latest weapon in the all-out brawl with Google’s Android OS. Gambling industry firms have been anticipating the product for some time although when we asked one member of the gaming industry, he was rather cautious on the device itself.
Ben Kamara, head of mobile at Sky Bet, explained a number of reasons why the phone itself may not give them huge increases in business. “Price of the device from Apple will exclude a lot of our customers and availability of the devices will be low in the short term as anything Apple produces is very popular,” he said
Kamara continued, stating, “Early adopters of the device are less likely to be our demographic of customer, and I would imagine the majority of these phones will be bought over the xmas period, and again not necessarily for our demographic of customer.”
They could start to offer in play betting on the next episode of America’s Next Top Model and X Factor. Then they’d be on to a winner with the new demographic. He then added, “That said as people upgrade to iPhone 4S more iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 devices will make it on the second hand market, and as a result people currently using older devices will upgrade their WAP experience to our new product and app.”
Apple’s new device, which was announced yesterday evening, features a new operating system as well a newly optimized voice control system. Does this now mean that you can treat your phone as if it’s literally your local bookie or the tic-tac man at a racecourse. If so, then we’d expect it to reply in the same manner as real life.
Apart from this, what many in the gambling industry are getting quite excited about is Apple’s new iOS5 operating system. Kamara is no different and they already have big plans for the new system.
“We have been anticipating this release and, with our partners Mobenga, we have been looking at Beta versions of iOS5 for some time and we have been looking at developing some new features against what we hope will be some of the functionality Apple include,” he said.
“Hopefully some of these features will directly drive new customers to use our site which we believe is definitely one of the best mobile betting sites in the UK,” added Kamara.
Sky Bet are just one of a number that are pinning their hopes on the mobile gambling industry as the growth that it’s currently seeing is unprecedented. Like we’ve said repeatedly here at CalvinAyre.com this, along with Asia, are the fastest growing sectors in the online gaming industry. Fact.
