The final item for the first day of MGF 2009 saw a panel comprising representatives from a number of the UK operators and distributors discussing delivery and distribution matters.

As ever, chairman Kristian Segerstrale watched over proceedings, with regular questions from the floor.

After some lengthy introductions, Neil Holroyd of Orange assured the audience that “games is a high contribution to our operator stream,” and that “just because we don’t push above the line, it doesn’t mean we don’t value it.”

Sven Halling of End2End content services accepted that the portals could be improved. He felt that we could see a 20-30 per cent improvement just by getting the basics (such as the user experience) right.

Tony Pearce of Player X felt that “Pricing is a bit of an issue. For most kids £5 is way too much for a game.”

His proposal to rectify this is flexible billing. He claimed that his research suggested that, where small initial payments had been made available, users ultimately spent more on the experience.

Having been pushed by the chairman on exact numbers, Pearce responded “You will get 15 per cent more revenue with flexible billing - that’s for sure.” Always nice to get a definitive answer.

Sven Halling had a problem with the flexible billing model, though, saying that he couldn't see any mid-level payments. People either bought very cheap (50 pence, for example) or paid for the premium experience (£5).

Xavier Louis of 3 stated that he’s seen a 5 per cent increase in female gaming with the introduction of a rental model as opposed to the standard purchasing method.

Next the chairman steered the conversation towards one of the hot topics of the day - publishers asking for the power to set prices a la Apple’s App Store.

Neil Holroyd was unequivocal in his assertion that Orange would not allow the publishers such freedom, but that he was open to exploring more “experimental” avenues in conjunction with the publishers.

He also stated that “The Apple model won’t last,” claiming that “80 per cent of their downloads are free games.” He questioned how long Apple would be prepared to continue with such a relaxed attitude.

Xavier Louis agreed with this assessment, predicting the lowering of Apple’s margins in the not too distant future thanks to their lack of pricing controls. He foresaw a 30 per cent drop in App Store prices over the next year or so.

Tony Pearce felt that effective pricing was “about finding the sweet spot” on each portal. He said that it wasn’t like the general gaming retail industry, where HMV has to drop its prices on a game to match a price drop from Game.

A typical O2 user neither knows nor cares about how much a games costs on Orange.

The chairman pushed the point further, pointing to the success of the App Store as proof that Apple must surely be doing things right.

Neil Holroyd responded that Apple’s success was nothing to do with its pricing model, but rather that it was due to their capitalising on the interest in gaming that was initially stimulated by O2 and Vodaphone’s early forays. “What Apple has done is they’re reinvested interest back into the consumers,” he said.

A point was then put to the panel that the discovery experience on the portals was poor, and that traffic was being pushed through to social networking sites ahead of gaming. 

Neil Holroyd accepted that there was an undeniable buzz about social networking that was impossible to ignore. He added that for games “we need to rely less on WAP traffic and more on on-device discovery.”

The chairman asked if they made more money from social networking than they do from games, to which Holroyd replied in the affirmative. “It’s a harsh reality, but it’s true.”

Xavier Louis believes that ultimately, game downloads will become part of the billing package in line with monthly SMS allowances.

The next question concerned the approval process, and whether a try before you buy element should be pushed. Neil Holroyd revealed that Orange had its own team of dedicated gamers who decided which games were fit for approval.

He also said that only proven, popular games made their way to the embedded service.

Tony Pearce made the point that try-before-you-buy used to be a problem because the games were rubbish. He now believed that it was more viable as the general quality of the games had increased.

“It’s very important that you give enough away so that you hook the player” he said, adding that “there is a technique” to it that isn’t simply a matter of putting one level up.

The next point from the floor concerned the “totally stupid” majority who were unaware of the data charges involved with downloading games, even for so-called free games. Neil Holroyd agreed that every provider had a responsibility to make users aware of the data charges.

Next Joony Koo of Com2us chipped back in with a point about Apple’s flexible pricing scheme, which allowed a poor-selling game to find an audience via a simple reactive price cut.

Neil Holroyd countered that such variable pricing created confusion among gamers, especially when it came to word of mouth, with users realising that they had paid a different amount to their friends for the same game.

The final question concerned whether Java still has a future. Neil Holroyd thinks so, saying that it’s “still the bread and butter of what we live for,” and still represents the majority of mobile game sales.