JupiterResearch, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation (the parent company of this website) has announced that the addressable audience of portable gamers will nearly double from 23 million to 43 million by 2009.

According to JupiterResearch, the addressable audience of portable gamers are users of dedicated game devices such as Nintendo's GameBoy, users of hybrid game devices such as Nokia's N-Gage or Tapwave's Zodiac, and gamers that play more than five hours per week on their PDAs.

Recent developments in dedicated game devices include Sony’s plan to enter the niche currently dominated by Nintendo's GameBoy with the announcement this week at E3 of Sony PlayStation Portable, while Nintendo, which holds 90% of the market, has a new device codenamed DS up its sleeve, a gaming device with two screens.

As for the hybrid category, Nokia' Symbian-based N-Gage smartphone platform received lukewarm sales and negative reviews, while Tapwave's Zodiac has only been available from Tapwave's website, limiting its exposure.

Things are looking up for both gaming platforms, however, as Nokia has announced N-Gage QD, a more compact and easier to use sequel to the original, while Tapwave has just announced that the Palm-based Zodiac will finally hit retail in June, as the highly regarded gaming device goes on sale in CompUSA stores.

Nokia has also inked an agreement with Criterion Software, a provider of middleware solutions for the game development industry. Criterion's RenderWare's game development solutions is used by many in the gaming development community, including Activision, Atari, EA, Konami, Midway, Rockstar Games, Sammy Studios, SCEA, Sony Online, THQ, Ubisoft and VUG.

And in terms of PDA and smartphone platforms overall, all three major portable operating systems have been updated with the idea enabling of better visual, audio, and gaming. The Symbian operating system is now at version 8.0, while Microsoft has unveiled Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition and PalmSource, the keeper of the Palm OS, delivered its latest OS, Cobalt, to licensees at the end of last year.

In addition to the first three, a fourth device class of dedicated game device users are composed of gamers that play more than five hours per week on their cellular phones. These category is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 16% through 2009. It is fueled by the proliferation of cellular phones better equipped to support games.

The cellphone market, which considerably outsells all the other areas, is currently at 520 milliion units shipped, a 20.5% increase from 2002 sales, according Gartner, which predicts sales will hit 580 million units this year. And with sales of more sophisticated mobile phones and smartphones exptected to soar over the next few years, that's alot of potential gamers.

A broadening audience for games, including those that tend to only play them on a mobile devices is a big factor in JupiterResearch's projected growth for the addressable portable gamer audience. "Competition is the major driver of growth over the next five years. As device manufacturers and content developers cater to broader audiences, we will see some amazing things happen," said Michael Gartenberg, Vice President and Research Director, JupiterResearch. "There's a gap in ownership between console and handheld devices allowing for an untapped market as well as substantial opportunities in age brackets from the upper teens to 34 years of age, both male and female," continued Gartenberg.