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Mobile Phones Becoming Gaming Consoles?

6:30 am on January 6, 2006 | Category: Mobile Devices

With the sound and graphical capability of cell phones growing continually, users of the devices are expressing an increasing interest in enhanced mobile functions, especially games.

To meet this demand, many providers have specially tailored new handsets to run a variety of games, ranging from classics like Snake to cutting edge graphical strategy games such as Townsmen (from HandyGames). Bluetooth is being used as a way to connect two or more phones to engage in multiplayer tournaments.

But this massive growth in the mobile gaming market begs the obvious question: just how far can this go? It has already proven to be more than a fad, but does it have the potential to become an industry of its own.

Most mobile phone industry observers tend to agree that sales of cell phone games, generally priced around â‚¬5 each, will rise in the coming years, as the associated technology becomes more advanced.

According to Florian Stein, editor Connect magazine, however, there is a ceiling to this growth. He believes that while the cell phone is becoming a powerful gaming tool, there will always be something else that is more powerful. Serious gamers who want the power capability of a real console will still stand in line to buy more advanced devices like the Nintendo DS or Playstation Portable.

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