Mobile games to 'tempt women'



Mobile gaming is set to become big business in the next year and the industry is hoping it will attract a different breed of gamers, women.



Aleks Krotoski gets 'very excited' about games

While the games industry is churning out better, brighter games, mobile makers are coming out with more colour-screened handsets on which to play them.



Both sides of the industry are hoping mobiles will drive more women to gaming because they are easy to use.



But games makers still have to break some of the stereotypical ideas about which games will appeal to men and women, say experts.



Better and brighter?



Industry analysts suggest mobile gaming in the UK will be worth more than £50 million in 2003, with that figure rising to more than £211 million by 2006.



With about 75% of the UK population owning a mobile, it is a big market to capture, says Julian Bright of Total Telecom magazine.



"Mobile games providers have access to a huge potential user base of both sexes, but so far there's still only a small proportion of women gamers," he told BBC News Online.



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