Fun & games in Las Vegas

Wood Harter got together with a few of his fellow application developers at GameWorld Technologies two weeks ago on a Thursday afternoon. The group’s goal was clear: win the Sprint PCS J2ME application developer’s contest in Las Vegas (www.sprintpcs.com). The group achieved its goal last week, winning the contest with Slam!, a four-player game in which players eliminate each other by placing blocks next to other players’ names. Each game session lasts one or two minutes.

The developer’s contest was in conjunction with Sprint PCS’ recent announcement that it will deploy J2ME when it launches 1X in mid 2002. The Orange County, CA, company has been developing J2ME applications for about a year, said Harter, GameWorld’s CTO (www.gameworld.com). The company’s creations were also showcased earlier this year. Harter was a runner-up at Nextel’s JavaOne J2ME contest, which was held in San Francisco (www.nextel.com).

More important than winning these contests, however, are the opportunities they create for developers seeking business deals with carriers. In addition to the grand prize of a big-screen TV, Harter had a dinner meeting at the conference with a few Sprint PCS business development representatives.

“The wireless market is really starting to enter the Java space, which has been our space since we’ve been in business for more than six years now,” he said last week. “Now that wireless is finally starting to come into that space, we believe we can own it. This (contest) showcased the talents of our team, and the development efforts that we’ve put forward.”

GameWorld’s first J2ME application was a poker game, developed one year ago on a Motorola iDEN emulator. The game was never released. Motorola was a series A investor in the company (www.motorola.com).

For developers to make it on their own, revenue models will have to change, Harter said.

“That’s been the issue all along for developers: to actually make a profit,” he said. “This revenue-sharing model is not working. The carriers don’t like it, because it cuts into their bottom line, because they don’t like to share their airtime. And developers don’t like it because the carriers don’t really share their airtime.”

According to Harter, Sprint PCS will allow a developer to easily charge consumers a fee based on a single download, one-time use, or monthly usage. The fee can then be charged directly to the consumer’s bill and Sprint will cut a check directly to the developer.

One conference attendee said Sprint PCS would take 20% of revenue in such an arrangement with developers.

Other methods of revenue sharing limit options and are more bureaucratic, according to Harter. Those methods limit consumer choice, which limits profit potential for carriers and application developers, he said.

“I think this model is much better than existing arrangements, which to me, is a lose situation for both sides,” Harter said. “It takes a lot of work to make an arrangement with a developer. (Many carriers) have very limited numbers of developers they work with. With this case (at Sprint PCS), it is a simple arrangement to work with a broader array of developers.”

Harter hopes other carriers begin to offer similarly broad opportunities for developers such as GameWorld.

“A J2ME program that allows independent developers to offer premium pricing for (applications). That’s really what I’d like to see,” he said.

The developer’s conference was such a success, according to a Sprint PCS spokesperson, the company is planning similar events for the future. For details on the carrier’s developer program, go to www.developer.sprintpcs.com.