Mobile games worth $10 billion by 2009, says analyst

If you know a mobile games developer, get them to buy you a drink. Why? They're going to be rich!

Well, maybe.

Juniper Research has released its latest report on the mobile games industry, which includes the prediction that in 2009, the industry will generate $10 billion of revenues from us gamers, thanks to a combination of mass-appeal casual games, and more whizzy 3D titles.

Juniper also reckons that in 2009, more than 460 million people will be downloading mobile games – double the number that are currently doing it. The report's author, Dr Windsor Holden, claims that in several European countries, mobile games have already overtaken ringtones. Stick that in your exhaust pipe and smoke it, Crazy Frog.

Props to Juniper too for holding faith in its previous predictions: this time last year, the company was predicting $10bn of revenues in 2009, too.

That's not to say it's all sun and light. The report warns that high and confusing data charges could hold the industry back, and also that there's still too many action and adventure games clogging up the operator portals (or, to put it another way, not enough other games to balance them out).

Holden also says operators and publishers should offer more free trials of their games – something we've noticed happening, thankfully – while the report also predicts that revenues from in-game advertising will grow to over $1.2 billion in 2012.