EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Glu Mobile deals with the development, marketing and selling of both casual and convectional mobile games. The company has an expansive portfolio of games created innovatively and distributed through wireless carriers for segment of subscribers and through online stores for smartphone and tablet users. There are two broad categories of games that the company deals with, games that the company does not have intellectual property but licenses it and games which the company owns their intellectual property (Mobile, 2014). The social media is another platform that Glu Mobile uses to develop and sell games. Glu Mobile has development studios located in California, London, Beijing, Hefei, Sao Paulo, and Moscow, with the ability to rapidly develop and deploy games (NASDAQ.com, 2014).
SWOT Analysis
The greatest strength Glu Mobile has is the popularity of most of its games in the market, giving it a sizeable market share and brand recognition. The ability to leverage on its six internal studios for rapid development and deployment is another strength for Glu Mobile. The company’s other strengths include its pool of talented developers and a well-developed distribution and sales network (Phx.corporate-ir.net, 2014). The major weakness for Glu Mobile is its dependence on mobile service providers for delivery of their products and handset manufacturers for Operating Software on which to build their products. These platforms keep on changing and Glu Mobile has to change its games to conform to the requirement of the new software. For example, recently Apple iOS 7 has been upgraded to iOS 8.
Opportunities for Glu Mobile exist, key among them is the growing number of smartphone users globally and the growth of the mobile apps market whose revenue is expected to hit the $11 Trillion mark by 2025 (Gartner.com, 2014). Entry of mobile service and operating software providers into the mobile games market is a major threat for Glu mobile, as it will lead to a decline in its market share and revenues. For Example Microsoft is offering inbuilt games in their Windows 8 mobile phones at lower prices.
References
Gartner.com,. (2014). Gartner Says Worldwide Video Game Market to Total $93 Billion in 2013. Retrieved 27 November 2014, from http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2614915
Mobile, G. (2014). Glu Mobile. Linkedin.com. Retrieved 27 November 2014, from https://www.linkedin.com/company/glu-mobile
NASDAQ.com,. (2014). GLU MOBILE INC (GLUU) IPO. Retrieved 27 November 2014, from http://www.nasdaq.com/markets/ipos/company/glu-mobile-inc-712480-52718
Phx.corporate-ir.net,. (2014). Investor Overview | Investors | Glu. Retrieved 27 November 2014, from http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=207033&p=irol-irhome
