It has been a while since we’ve done an interview here at PocketFullOfApps, so to change that we had an opportunity to sit down and talk to Game Insight‘s CEO and Founder, Alisa Chumachenko, about the new data plans from cell phone carriers (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, etc) and how they will affect the gaming industry. Because this is not necessarily from a consumer’s point of view, it’s interesting to see what big time CEOs like Chumachenko think of the cheaper data plans and how they could potentially benefit from it in both the long and short term run. All in all, we hope you enjoy the interview below and gain some knowledge on this popular topic.

Q: For that that may not know, what are the new data plans?

In the US, the largest telcos have been fighting tooth and nail for subscribers for some time. Most recently, at the end of last year, T-Mobile began aggressively discounting data plans, which prompted rivals Sprint and AT&T to cut the prices on their data plans earlier this year—with AT&T notably dropping the price on its monthly 10 gigabyte family plan from $40 per device to only $15 in mid-February. Shortly afterwards, Verizon unveiled its “More Everything” data pricing levels, which also offers more data at lower prices—its $40/500 MB plan has been expanded to 1GB, its $50/1GB plan has been expanded to 2GB, and its $60/2GB plan has been bumped up to 3GB of data monthly. In short, American telecom companies are offering much more data per month at lower prices.

Q: What is Game Insight’s opinion on the new data plans, and how will this affect Game Insight positively and/or negatively?

In the US, major carriers are trying to win over customers by competitively offering lower fees, more data, and additional bonuses. While these changes will likely not have any immediately direct effect on mobile gaming companies like us, what we’ll probably see happen is mobile customers who simply have more money in their pockets each month thanks to these cheaper data plans. Mobile users with more disposable income will be able to spend more money on apps. So what may happen is a ripple effect that trickles down to gaming apps, and ultimately affects mobile gaming in a positive way. In addition, since mobile users will have more data available each month, we may also see them take advantage of this increased bandwidth to download even more apps each month, including mobile game apps.

Q: What are the biggest changes from these changes in mobile gaming?

Again, the biggest change will likely be a trickle-down effect as mobile users find themselves both with more money in their pockets and a larger data download allowance each month that they will presumably use on more apps—using their larger data allowance to download more apps (including mobile games) and the extra money in their pockets to make purchases of either premium game apps, or in-app purchases in free-to-play gaming apps.

In the long run, if data plans continue to become cheaper and to offer even more monthly data across the board, we may even see platform providers loosen traditionally data-constricted limitations tied to their hardware, such as Apple’s current limit on 100MB being the highest filesize for an app that can be downloaded without wifi—in other words, if these massive and cheap data plans truly become the new normal, Apple might begin to allow users to download even larger apps via network (for example MMORPGs like Dragon Eternity). The mobile gaming market seems to be maturing in a way to support more “core” gaming experiences—that is, games that differ from low-engagement “casual” game experiences by offering state-of-the-art graphics and technology at the cost of higher app filesize—so if filesize restrictions become more relaxed in the long term, it’s possible that we’ll see more adoption of core gaming apps overall as well.

Q: Why are the platforms becoming more competitive with one and another? Give examples.

Platforms are becoming more competitive because the platform market is directly affected by global changes in telecom, especially in terms of new audience development in different territories worldwide. It’s been the case for some time that iOS apps tend to monetize better than Android apps, particularly in the US market—yet Android continues to enjoy a larger market share in the smartphone market worldwide. As more countries further develop their telecom infrastructures and more and more people worldwide pick up their very first smartphones, or upgrade to their next ones, there is increasing pressure to penetrate these new markets and be the first mover there. If one platform can become a market leader in a particular territory, this will be a huge success for all mobile market players associated with that platform—including hardware manufacturers and app developers. These days, there’s a lot riding on whether your platform can compete in the marketplace.

Q: Are there any numbers or predicted percentages that can be shared of how this will increase or decrease mobile gaming?

It’s difficult to predict specific numbers or percentages because there are many, many players involved in this situation that may be affected differently. However, we still feel that mobile gaming app usage and revenues will increase overall as a result of these changes. Also, as mentioned earlier, if cheap data becomes prevalent long-term, platform owners may even relax their restrictions on app download sizes over network, rather than over wifi—which will mean even more people downloading more and larger game apps to their mobile devices.