Analysys predicts a strong gaming trend

Market research group Analysys said on Thursday that Western European operators would see sales of mobile games grow from this year's 255 million euros to 3 billion euros in 2005.

The growth is dependent on the sales of new mobile phones with large color displays and support for java applications. About 60 per cent of handsets are expected to be java-enabled by late 2005.

"Mobile games offer the greatest prospects in the short term," the Cambridge-based group said according to a report by Reuters.

Games are expected to account for a large part of non-voice services, which operators are keen to expand to offset pressure on revenues from voice calls due to heavy competition.

Other non-voice services include text messaging, expected to generate 11.4 billion euros among European carriers in 2002. Voice revenues generate around 89.5 billion euros.

Java handsets were introduced in Japan early 2001 and now 43 per cent of NTT DoCoMo's 35.2 million subscribers are downloading java services.

Market leader Nokia last month was the first handset maker to announce a mobile game phone that will compete head-to-head with console game maker Nintendo's portable GameBoy Advance. Nokia's gaming device, N-gage, will double as a phone and will allow multi-player games over the mobile phone network, which suits operators just fine.