Superheroes on your cellphone
2008-06-20 10:04
Tokyo - After taking on the big
and small screens, comic book heroes like Spiderman and
Superman may soon be appearing on an even smaller screen -
your cellphone.
Suit-clad businessmen reading comic books are a common
sight on Japanese trains, but they could soon be poring over
their phones with publishers increasingly digitalising their
comics to cash in on the country's mobile-savvy consumers.
The July 11 launch of Apple Inc's iPhone could also spur
the growth of the mobile comic market as the device's
touch-screen would make it easier and more appealing to read
comics on handsets, analysts say.
As the number of cellphone subscribers approaches 108
million, or 85% of Japan's population, carriers are
moving away from voice services, beefing up content services
and data transmission to increase revenues.
E-mailing, music-downloads and internet surfing are already
popular, and analysts expect comics to be the next big thing
with the number of titles for mobile use soaring recently.
Comics led the size of the mobile publication market to
double in the last business year to $204m, according to internet and media research firm Impress R&D. The size is almost three times bigger than the e-publication market for PCs.
"Until now, users had been extensively using mobile phones
for e-mails," said Shinko Securities analyst Tomohiko Okugawa
said. "Now that's shifting to games and comics ... this is the
area it's going to be very interesting."
Top mobile phone carriers recently unveiled handsets and services, enhancing features like video downloads and animated e-mails.
"We cannot be ahead of competition just by prices, features
and sounds like we used to, and now we have to improve contents
and user-friendliness to position ourselves apart from the
rivals," said Toshitake Amamiya, general manager of KDDI's
content and media division.
"The importance of contents has been growing ... It is
crucial to pursue what we can do in this market where each
adult always carries around a cellphone and uses it as a
life tool."
Nikko Citigroup analyst Hiroshi Yamashina said the bigger,
better screens of new cellphones will help make mobile comics
more popular.