The number of U.S. wireless subscribers with compatible handsets who played games on their cell phones increased from 20 percent last year to 27 percent in 2005, according to a survey of 8,500 subscribers conducted by market research firm NPD Group. However, only one-third of these mobile gamers actually purchased game downloads; the rest played free games or titles that came pre-loaded on their phones. The most common motivation cited among respondents for playing mobile games was "to kill time or alleviate boredom," with the average gaming session lasting 11 minutes. The survey found more kids between the ages of 13 and 17 (60 percent) said they played mobile games than did adults (23 percent), while mobile gamers were twice as likely to be African-American, Hispanic or Asian. "The world of mobile gaming is like the Wild West," said NPD Group vice president Clint Wheelock. "In this time of rapid growth, and with the industry in such a formative stage, it's especially important for wireless operators and game publishers to understand the mindsets of mobile gamers, in order to best position themselves for long-term success."
The prevailing narrative around artificial intelligence (AI) has been one of relentless scale. Bigger models, bigger clusters, bigger budgets. The assumption, largely unchallenged until recently, was that raw parameter count translated directly into competitive advantage. New research from Omdia suggests it's time to retire that assumption. According to the latest market study by Omdia, parameter growth in frontier AI models has slowed to around 5 percent annually since 2021, a stark contrast to the more than hundredfold expansion seen between 2019 and 2021. Enterprise AI Market Development For executives who have been making infrastructure and investment decisions based on the assumption that AI would keep demanding ever-larger, ever-more-expensive hardware, this finding deserves serious attention. The race to the top of the model size leaderboard has, at least for now, plateaued. Crucially, Omdia's analysts are not reading this as an AI winter. Alexander Harrowell, senior pri...