While may people anxiously await the arrival of the much delayed PlayStation 3 for their living rooms, many of the big name titles first created for consoles and PCs are now turning up in smaller versions for mobile phones that an increasingly large section of the population own. And this is just the beginning.

Every year, mobile phones are becoming more powerful, allowing for more applications and providing a new platform for both gamers and the marketers who want to capture their attention. With every generation, handsets are getting more powerful, and are better able to cope with console class gaming, which means they are able to process 3D graphics that scroll past at a rate of at least 20 frames a second.

Previously, many of the mobile gaming conventions we are used to, such as competing against ghost opponents rather than real people, have come about because of the limitations of phone networks. Data transfer rates on second generation networks are too slow to play real people in real time. But these limitations are disappearing with 3G networks simply because they can ship more data back and forth more quickly.

Once issues like latency or delay drops below 350 milliseconds are fast becoming invisible to users and 3G networks will definitely ship data between handsets fast enough for that, which is good enough for multi-player gaming and real time racing. But what will also make a big difference is the way that people pay for the data they consume via their phone.

Today, most operators charge users for the megabytes they use. A pricing strategy that does not encourage people to spend lots of time browsing the web or downloading extra levels for games. But a new pricing model is just around the corner. Just as flat rate pricing transformed the internet industry and resulted in a huge spike in the numbers of people going online, the same business model applied to the mobile phone industry will likely yield similar results. Recently, Verizon Wireless introduced flat rate pricing for its VCast network as did KDDI in Japan. Both companies have since seen the numbers of mobile gamers increase rapidly. And with unlimited data transfers without incurring extra charges now possible, game developers are no longer limited to fitting mobile games in to a file that can only be stored inthe the phone's limited memory. Instead, extra parts can be added as they are needed, freeing up game makers to think bigger.

As a result, games can be much bigger. The mobile version of Need for Speed Underground 2, for example has about 40 hours of game play in it, all of which is expected to be consumed in small chunks. It relies on network-based storage and only pulls down levels, cars and characters as needed, so data is constantly being sent back and forth between the phone and service provider.

Although the way PC and console games are played has to be modified for mobile phones, game developers try to recrete the experience as close as possible to the full version. It's a big challenge to get a relatively complicated game like Doom, for example, on a mobile phone. But with advertisers ready to sponsor the games and use them as marketing tools, it's clear that this industry is still in its infancy.