Juniper: Mobile games market to hit $10bn by 2009
Increasing popularity of casual games and better hardware driving usage
The latest analysis from Juniper Research predicts that the mobile games market will be worth USD 10 billion by 2009.
The reasons for this are principally the increased popularity of casual gaming, especially in emerging markets such as India - whose user base is predicted to multiply by four in the next two years - and better hardware, with handsets that are more amenable to gaming and capable of displaying higher quality graphics.
The report entitled "Mobile Games: Subscription and Download," by Dr Windsor Holden, points to over 460 million mobile users downloading games by 2009, with game downloads overtaking ringtones in a number of Western European markets.
Additionally it expects China and the Far East to remain the principle markets, growing from USD 2.7 billion in 2007 to USD 5.7 billion in 2012, with in-game advertising rising sharply from USD 90 million to USD 1.2 billion in the same time frame.
But the report did sound a note of caution to carriers, as the high cost of browsing and downloading services along with unclear price plans will hinder mass-market take-up of such services in the short term.
A white paper taken from the report, entitled "Mobiles: Playing the Game" is available now.