North American iPhone game sales hit $100m in 2008

Platform accounted for 10 per cent of mobile games market in US and Canada, says Screen Digest.
The market analyst adds that Apple's device accounted for over $100 million in revenues in the second half of 2008 (games were launched for the device in July).

Screen Digest believes that new smartphone devices will boost the mobile games industry, while the traditional on-portal Java space will slow.

It says growth in the operator distributed mobile games market, which peaked at over 50 per cent in 2004 and 2005, will drop to seven per cent in 2009.

Games for new platforms accounted for 15 per cent of mobile games revenues in the major North American and European markets in 2008.

Screen Digest asserts that Nokia’s N-Gage and Google’s Android Market have the potential to grow the market for mobile games off portal, but that Apple has the key elements to remain market leader.


Jack Kent, research analyst at Screen Digest, said: "At the moment Apple is out in front – in terms of user experience, range of content and in generating consumer and developer interest in mobile games for its devices.

"While the market for mobile games on the App Store is strong, iPhone users still only account for a tiny proportion of the market. In Q4 2008, iPhone shipments made up less than 2 per cent of total handset shipments.”

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