When I first read about Electroneum I followed some blogs and forums and eventually found a chat where someone said that the mobile mining is not actually mining (adding blocks to the network etc) because real mobile mining would be way to intense on a mobile phone, draining your battery real quick. It's more like a simulation making it look like you are actually mining. Also a mobile processor is so weak it would take such a long time to actually mine something. Charging your phone might be more expensive compared to the energy your phone uses to mine a coin. I found some reviews including this one that also says the mining thing "might" not actually be mining and that this was just a way to gain massive attention for the ICO . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHPPt0LKFH8
can anyone prove me wrong?
Just as you said the phones won't really mine but give a "mining experience" in which users gain some coins by running the app or playing a game. This is mainly to attract new users and attention to the coin. They want to get a viral app going for non crypto savvy people. I think this might work, as long as these people can actually spend the coins somewhere (micros transaction in games or something) this will give the coins value and increase the price on exchanges.