Creating entertainment applications for cellular phones

Abstract

Cellular phones offer a whole range of interesting and exciting possibilities for entertainment systems coupled with a very resource-constrained environment. In this article we consider the possibilities currently achievable through the example of a networked sports service. Applications that keep users up-to-date with sports results and playing fantasy team games, based on the results of actual events, are well established on the Internet; they attract millions of subscribers world-wide. As yet, the sports results services on cellular phones, even within countries that offer 3G services, are by and large SMS or WAP-based, and there are no dedicated fantasy team game services for cellular phones. In this article we present a novel application using GPRS that not only keeps users up-to-date, wherever they are, with the events of the English Premier Football League, but also provides the opportunity of playing a real-time fantasy football game as these events transpire. As we are seeing moves by cellular phone manufacturers to adopt standardized operating systems, we compare application development in Symbian, Brew, and J2ME. Although J2ME is not an operating system, it has, up until recently, been the only means of cross-platform application development for cellular phonesThis application not only takes advantage of the "nature" of the cellular network, rather than porting existing services off the Internet, but radically improves currently available services in terms of cost and efficiency. It also highlights the fact that resource constraints on a cellular phone are not a bar to creating compelling content. This technique could be applied to a whole range of sports from Formula 1 to baseball.