Mobile game makers are beginning to pay attention to the high-end smartphone market as the segment grows in size. WSJ notes that 3.9 million smartphones and mobile PDAs were shipped in North America in the first quarter of this year, a 50 percent increase year-on-year. This accounted for 9.5 percent of phone shipments in North America. It’s not just the increase in consumer base as smartphones move beyond professionals which is causing increased interest from mobile game makers, but a realization that “the business consumer wants to play games, too”... and they can afford to pay for them, which is an attractive bonus. Games for smartphones tend to be more expensive than for other phones: EA sells smartphone games for $10-20 while Glu Mobile charges about $9, compared to the $6-10 for most mobile games. The games are usually better because smartphones tend to have bigger screens and more processing power.

Interestingly, the article claims that operators don’t sell games for smartphones “in part because they may need new technology to do so”. I’m not sure what that involves, but Microsoft is working with them to allow over-the-air sales of games to Windows devices. Most games are sold through third party sites like Handango or Bplay, which sold two million BlackBerry games last year.