Mobile gaming for smart phones and handheld devices will continue its impetuous growth in 2011.PC games were about $2.1 billion in US sales in 2010, and that was down about 19% from 2009. It is expected that space at retail for PC games will shrink, so Smartphone games have a good shot at passing them up. Not only that, Smartphone will become a bigger market than PCs this year, worldwide. Now that’s a market worth being part of.

The rapid growth in Smartphone adoption in the United States has provided a boost for mobile gaming, as 34 percent of those who downloaded a game in November 2010 did so using a Smartphone.

The IPhone and BlackBerry Curve have replaced the RAZR and low-end flip phones as the most popular gaming platforms.IPhone owners accounted for 14 percent of mobile game downloads in November, with 32.4 percent of all IPhone users reporting that they have downloaded a game in the month.

India, with around 584 Million mobile subscribers (FY 2010) represents one of the world’s largest, fastest growing, and highly untapped mobile gaming markets. Particularly, past few years have been quite revolutionary for the industry as it saw emergence of Smartphone, GPS enabled sets, and 3G handsets. Consumers have also given tremendous response to the world class offerings of domestic and foreign players and accepted new revenue models, which are directly linked with industries developments and future expansion.

According to the latest research, Indian mobile gaming industry has secured one of the world’s fastest growth rates during the last five years. The massive mobile subscribers’ base, technically upgraded games, advanced Smartphone, and 3G enabled handsets have provided much awaited boost to the industry, which grew more than fivefold during 2005-2009. The research revealed that in the coming years also, the industry will continue to post staggering market growth. The projected CAGR growth of around 74% during 2010-2013 will help India become one of the most attractive destinations for foreign mobile game developers and distributors for investments and outsourcing services.

Domestic companies account for majority of the mobile gaming market in India. These homegrown companies have been witnessing rapid growth in their overall revenue compared to their foreign counterparts. However, it has been anticipated that, during the forecast period, entry of international majors will somewhat balance the market dynamics and result in competitive product pricing and overall improved quality. These proceedings will benefit the consumer most and will help propel industries future growth.

Future Report:

Visiongain’s latest exclusive report examines how Smartphone adoption rates are on the rise, due to Apple’s IPhone and the recent influx of app stores. Mobile Applications are at the heart of this new trend.

According to the research, the inevitable ascent of the mobile gaming market depends not only on Smartphone subscribers’ higher propensity to play games on their mobile devices, but also their heavier gaming activity across nearly every dimension. Smartphone subscribers (47.1 per cent) are three times more likely to play games on their device at least once a month than feature phone subscribers (15.7). They are more than five times as likely to play games almost every day and far surpass their feature phone counterparts across various methods of game play.

Smartphone subscribers also install significantly more games on their devices with 27.3 per cent having installed at least one game compared to just 5.6 per cent of feature phone subscribers. A third of Smartphone subscribers with games have more than five games installed on their phones, while less than one per cent of feature phone subscribers have that many games installed.

Since the inception of App Stores, Smartphone manufacturers and Mobile Game developers have been trying to provide handsets and game applications that can capitalize on this new market and increase revenue streams. For example, Apple’s most recent gadget – the IPad has been launched with a significantly greater number of game apps than any other kind of application.