Mobile gaming gets boost from smartphones, but will it be enough?

There’s plenty of meat on the comScore report from earlier this week. One of the trends show that the number of people downloading mobile games grew 17% from Nov 2007 to Nov 2008. The number of smartphones being used to download games increased as well. 34% of downloaders owned a smartphone, compared with 10% last year.

Other stats from the report:

The iPhone and BlackBerry Curve have replaced the RAZR and low-end flip phones as the most popular gaming platforms.

While the number of smartphone owners downloading a game nearly tripled, there was a 14% drop among owners of feature phones.

iPhone owners accounted for 14% of mobile game downloaders in November

32.4% of all iPhone users reporting they downloaded a game in the month, compared with a market average of 3.8 percent.

8.5 million people, almost 4% percent of all mobile subscribers, downloaded a game to their mobile device.

From the release:

“The rapid growth in smartphone adoption in the United States has provided a boost for mobile gaming, as 34 percent of those downloading a game in November did so using a smartphone,” said Mark Donovan, senior analyst, comScore. “Last year, not one smartphone appeared in the top 10 devices used for mobile downloads. This year, six out of 10 are smartphones, excluding devices with smartphone-like functionality, such as the Instinct and Voyager, which also make appearances. As the mobile phone has evolved into a better platform for both playing and merchandising games, the games being offered have also been improved, drawing in a broader user base. Over the past year, we have seen mobile gaming expand into a broadening demographic, with strongest growth among teens, who previously eschewed their mobile device in favor of handheld gaming devices, and those 35 and older.”

What we think?

Those are some deceptive percentages right there.

While the number of game downloads to smartphones has definitely increased, it’s also true that the increase is to be expected. 2008 was the year smartphones hit the market in a substantial manner. It’s easier to download and run games on these new platforms, so the number of people has increased. It’s also worth noting the statistic above showing how non-smartphone downloads dropped by 14%. But since feature phone ownership is still far larger than smartphone ownership that figure represents a big drop in game downloads.

Mobile gaming is going to become far more dependent on smartphones. But is the smartphone market going to be healthy enough to support mobile gaming during the downturn?