With the deployment of 2.5G and 3G networks along with proliferation of Java-enabled devices, mobile gaming experience will improve dramatically and by 2006 is expected to be worth $5-billion with over 100 million players, according to a study released by consulting firm Strategic Analytics.

In the report ‘Critical Challenges for the Mobile Gaming Market,’ the authors not only provide insight into opportunities for mobile gaming but also address some of the current challenges facing the industry, including

• Who will pay for the wireless gaming experience?
• Wireless devices are not yet optimized for the ‘gaming experience’
• Networks are slow and too expensive for the end-user

Nitesh Patel, an analyst with the firm’s Wireless Internet Applications Strategic Advisory Services, describes gaming as a bipolar activity. "People either play games very frequently, such as more than once a day, or very infrequently, such as less than once a week." The youth market, comprising of 16 and 24 year olds, is the target market for operators and wireless portals, Patel added.

According to David Kerr, president of Strategic Analytics Global Wireless Practice, the very nature of wireless gaming will change dramatically. Kerr explained, "Turns-based games mandated by existing networks and devices will increasingly give way to more visual and satisfactory action games. This will occur as manufacturers provide a packet paradigm in which larger color displays are commonplace."

For players in the mobile gaming market, the report offers insight into key market drivers and inhibitors to growth, technology advances, and consumer behavior tends.

For more information: http://www.strategyanalytics.com/press/index.html