The mobile gaming industry in the U.S. has become a billion-dollar business and will top $6.8 billion by 2013, according to research firm In-Stat. Although, the mobile game industry is still in its early stages, In-Stat says it is gaining significant momentum and that it is a key contributor to wireless data usage and revenues. Of course, there’s many challenges facing the industry. In-Stat Analyst Jill Meyers said it’s a very fragmented market because of the lack of standards and number of different operating systems and handsets. “This fragmentation has resulted in mobile developers and publishers making the difficult decision of spending finite resources developing games on the platforms they believe will have the best chance of success.” Release.

Other findings:

—29.5 percent, or 590 of the 2,000 people polled, play mobile games.
—Of the gamers polled, almost 20 percent reported buying games from Internet sites other than their mobile carrier’s site.