Cell phone gaming soars as console & handheld markets saturate.

It's everywhere in the news: Tiger Woods isn't being true to his first nor last name these days. What's also in the news is that sales of console and handheld systems have stalled, entering a maturation phase (without deeper voices), waiting for the vibrant pulse that the Kinect/Move/3DS combo is expected to provide. The industry is going through dramatic changes, one of them being the unstoppable rise of the cell phone video game market.

A new research from iSuppli uncovers some interesting statistics:

• In 2009, 1.14 billion game-capable mobile phones were shipped from factories.
• In 2010, this number is expected to rise to 1.27 billion (+11%).

In the meantime, the console market is expected to flatten, with PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii entering a mature phase in their individual life cycles.

• In 2009, 52.1 million video game consoles were produced.
• In 2010, this number is expected to rise slightly to 52.3 million.

And the handheld market isn't faring better:

• In 2009, 39.9 million handheld devices were produced.
• In 2010, this number is expected to decrease to 38.9 million (-2.5%).

2011 is expected to bear brighter auspices for consoles, with the release of motion-sensing devices like Sony's Move and Microsoft's Kinect, something that Tiger Woods should enjoy quite a lot.

Source: iSupply.
Image: Samsung.