FRAMINGHAM, Mass.-Mobile gaming is poised to become the most lucrative data application category, overtaking ring tones this year and rising to nearly $1.5 billion by 2008, according to a report from consultancy IDC.
IDC said the key to massive uptake will be a shift away from single-player, device-only gameplay to virtual community-oriented gaming. Currently only a sliver of the mobile-gaming population, casual players will come to dominate the market by the end of 2008, the report said.
But IDC warned that carriers must work with handset manufacturers, game developers and aggregators to fully tap the market. “Broad cooperation between market players is essential,” IDC said, “both for individual success and the success of the market as a whole. The key to increased mass-market uptake does not lie in any one company’s purview.”
