Mobile games market to hit US$10bn by 2009

End-user generated revenues from mobile games will reach nearly US$10bn by 2009, according to a new report.

Analyst firm Juniper Research said that the revenues will be driven by the increasing popularity of casual gaming, combined with more gaming-friendly handsets offering high-quality 3D graphics.

"Game downloads have already overtaken ring-tones in a number of western European markets, while mobile handsets are now the de facto games console in many developing countries," said report author Dr Windsor Holden.

More than 460 million mobile users are expected to download games by 2009, representing a twofold increase on the current number.

Much of this growth is expected in emerging markets such as the Indian sub-continent, where the number of users will rise from 10 million in 2007 to nearly 40 million in 2009.

However, the report warned that the high cost of browsing and downloading services and content in many countries, combined with opaque pricing structures, continues to act as major stumbling blocks to service adoption.

Juniper also warned that that more needs to be done to widen the mobile gaming demographic, although the firm did note an increasing number of products targeting female gamers.

"Essentially, the proportion of leading titles focusing on action and adventure has not altered discernibly over the past two years," said Dr Holden.

"While these are popular within the traditional gaming demographic, there is a major opportunity to attract casual gamers by enhancing a portfolio mix with more titles from alternative genres."

China and the Far East will remain the largest regional markets for mobile games throughout the period covered by the report, with predicted revenues of US$5.7bn by 2012.

Worldwide revenues from in-game advertising are expected to grow from $90m in 2007 to more than US$1.2bn in 2012.

手机游戏09年将达100亿美元，中国仍是最大市场

一项最新的报告显示，截止2009年手机游戏所产生的收入将达到100亿美元。

调查机构Juniper Research 称主要是移动端休闲类游戏，以及少部分支持高质量3D图形格式手机上的游戏，这些游戏用户的增加将促进收入的增长。

分析师Dr Windsor Holden说，“在一些西欧国家，游戏下载已经很风靡，即使在发展中国家也发展很快。”2009年前，超过四亿六千万的手机用户渴望下载游戏。其中增长最快的地区可能将会是印度，从2007年的一千万增长到2009年的四千万。

尽管如此，报告中还是提到了手机游戏发展的阻碍，即许多国家浏览器和下载服务的高成本；游戏定价不透明。

虽然报告中也提到了很多专为女性的移动游戏，但分析师还是称当前的手机游戏市场下需要更大程度地拓宽游戏人群。“实际上在过去的两年来，手机游戏仍主要是动作和冒险类的。”Holden说。

中国和远东地区仍将是手机游戏的最大市场，预计到2012年将达到57亿的市场。手机游戏中的广告中收入也将增加，从2007年的九千万到2012年的超过12亿。