The report from Gartner moves on to give predictions for 2010 and 2013, with the number of apps being downloaded being 4.5 Billion and 21.6 Billion respectively, with revenues reaching $6.7 Billion (£4.1 Billion) and $29.5 Billion (£18 Billion). The latter of which is truly an obscene amount of money when you take into consideration what it is that is being sold.

The figures provided by Gartner only go to prove the scale on which handsets such as the iPhone 3GS are becoming an integral part of everyday life and the impact that “app stores” have made and will continue to make in years to come. Fancy getting in on the “app store” action? Then why not take a look our iPhones deals and get yourself access to the most successful app store currently on the market.

Normally the vehicle (excuse the pun) for the likes of Mario, Sonic, Crash Bandicoot and co., Robbie Williams Racing puts you behind the wheel of a dune buggy or motor cross bike as you take on the former Take That star in a series of one on one races. There’s a host of unlockables on offer including remixes of the track “Bodies” and commentary from the man himself. It’s no small coincidence that our Robbie just happens to have a new album out and the game takes full advantage of this with several in-game links to iTunes where you can download singles or the album in it’s entirety.

The aforementioned little red plumber (Mario not Robbie) has nothing to worry about of course; Mario Kart this isn’t. However it is refreshing to see an artist try something a little different when promoting a new release. The game is available now in the App Store for £1.79 whilst the album, Reality Killed the Video Star, can be downloaded from iTunes. All this leaves us to say is…Madonna Speedboat Racing anyone?

N-Gage originally launched as both a hardware and software gaming platform with the release of the first N-Gage handset back in 2003. Poorly received (any one remember the 1st gen N-Gage that had to be held side-on to make a call?!) and despite numerous revamps, the phone itself was abandoned in 2005 in favour of a move to Symbian S60 smartphones that could run N-Gage games. But still, the platform failed to take off and the news that N-Gage will be killed off entirely shouldn’t come as too much of a shock. Instead Nokia will be focusing efforts on the Ovi store where both Nokia titles and 3rd party games will be available for purchase.

In a statement released late last week, Nokia had the following to say: “We will no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform. N-Gage games can be purchased until the end of September 2010. While the N-Gage.com site together with the N-Gage Arena and other community features will remain in operation throughout 2010.” With the emergence of the iPhone as an excellent gaming phone together with the presence of consoles dedicated to gaming (DSi and the new PSP Go for instance), N-Gage was on thin ice.

Nokia did however offer some conselation to those worrying about games already purchased; “Your games are safe, all your purchased N-Gage games will continue to work on your N-Gage compatible mobile device and they’re yours to keep. However, community features of the games will not be functional after 2010.”

As this is a scaled down portable version, the fake guitar is understandably (and obviously) ditched in favour of an all on screen affair. Tap notes as they move along the on screen guitar frets and string long combos together to maximise your scores. Bored of jammin’ alone? Then get some friends involved via Bluetooth. You and up to 3 friends can rock out on guitar, bass, drums and vocals (fear not you shy and retiring types, vocals are again handled on screen rather than literally singing into the phone).

Tracks from the likes of the Pixies and Blink 182 should cater for the young and err.. not so young rockers out there and at a mere £5.99, Rock Band on the iPhone is almost irresistible. Apple have been making alot of noise about the iPod and iPhone being a genuine alternative to portable gaming heavy weights such as the PSP and Nintendo DS and with stellar titles such as this, it’s easy to see why.

The free app available from the App store lets gamers take control of a swimsuit-clad male or female hurtling down a huge waterslide that weaves between towering skyscrapers. Players use the iPhones motion sensitivity (thanks to the built in accelerometer) to steer characters to collect items as well as dodge the dreaded rubber ducks and crabs that litter the course. Great fun and absolutely free, but don’t take my word for it, check out the video below to see the game in action!

The idea behind Seek ‘n Spell is simple; you and up to 9 friends (yes, you can play 10 player!) fire up the game in your local park and Seek ‘n Spell will upload a map of your location. The game then dots various letters around the map. The aim of the game is to run round collecting letters (the Seek part) and then use the virtual letters you have gathered to create words (the spell part!). The game plays out like a huge version of Scrabble with the exception being that rather than playing on a measly board, the whole world is your playing surface with the game requiring you to run round the location picking up those precious letters.

Collect up to 10 letters at a time, tap the letters in the letter tray to spell the word then hit submit to register your word and get your score. The bigger the word, the bigger the score. Special golden letters appear from time to time, spicing things up a bit by doubling your word score. Seek ‘n Spell lets you play with up to 10 players but for those of you with friends without an iPhone 3G, you can take it in turns using 1 phone seeing who can get the biggest score.

Manic doesn’t begin to cover it! Seek ‘n Spell is now available through the app store and easily a contender for best iPhone game yet.

First impressions of the store are good. Setting up an account and logging in is relatively painless; choose your Nokia phone, enter in a few details such as creating a username and password and your account is instantly activated. Once logged in, the Ovi store will take you back to the homepage and show you a selection of recommended applications for your phone, both free and chargeable. From here you can then use the tabs at the top to sort by most recent and also by type (games/ applications/ wallpapers etc.). On each category there is also the option to filter between paid and free apps. The lay out of the Ovi Store is clear and straight forward and navigating is hassle free. Negotiating the different genre’s also makes it easy to filter so you can find what you’re looking for. One negative is the lack of free applications (in games there were only 5 compatible with my N82 and one of these was a demo) but considering the Ovi store is only a few days old, we’re willing to overlook this.

So first impressions are positive for Nokia’s Ovi Store. It goes without saying that they have there work cut out for them following in the foot steps of the hugely succesful (not to mention all round brilliant) iPhone App store but the launch of the Ovi store in the run up to the launch of the N97 is just in the nick of time. Can Nokia build on the good start it has made? Only time will tell…

Sony Ericsson’s latest phone, the Sony Ericsson F305, is a phone that delivers a world class handheld gaming experience in a sleek and stylishly designed slide phone. With the F305 your favourite game is only one-click away. Enjoy the full gaming experience with stereo speakers, 2” large TFT display with a resolution of 176×220 pixels and up to 262.144 colours. Taking some of the Sony experience on board with their Playstation heritage and integrating it with motion sensor technology used in some of their previous phones for full motion sensitive game play. Swing, shake and swipe your way through 10 pre-installed games, including Bowling, Bass Fishing and Horse riding with a further 50(ish) 2D and 3D titles set to be available for download.

A spokesperson for Sony Ericsson claims this handset is simply “natural progression” and you have to really agree as it does take mobile game play to a whole new level.

Away from gaming, the F305 features everything you would expect from a new mobile phone including an impressive 2.0 Megapixel camera with video recording capabilities and an MP3 player with Sony Ericsson’s popular TrackID application which finds artist and album information from a short music clip that you record. Hear a song you like, simply open TrackID, record a few seconds and the phone will find out who it’s by and take you to the music store to download it. Elsewhere this cool compact slider has an FM radio to boost its music potential and despite only having 10 MB of internal memory, is complimented with a memory card slot supporting up to 4GB for storage of extra games and music, not to mention video.

To complement the F305 there is now a handy new accessory available for Sony Ericsson handsets which should certainly appeal to any serious gamer. Although the F305 already gives you up to 8 hours of gameplay, you can now have the reassurance of a back-up power supply with the ‘Power Pack CPP-100’. Attach it to your key ring and when you need it, simply plug it into the phone to receive an instant battery power boost!

The F305 sets to be the start of an interesting new twist for mobile gaming. Whether the F series will develop into a gaming range similar to the Walkman W range and Camera C series only time will tell however, if this handset is anything to go by, it would definitely be an exciting proposition. The F305 is now available to buy or upgrade to at mobiles.co.uk on both O2 and T-Mobile Networks. Click here to go directly to the F305’s page.

Initially, the game will be released with 8 levels, with incentives such as wallpapers rewarding players who complete each level. Though anyone who has played an MGS game will agree that getting this on to the iPhone will be no easy task, what this goes to show is just what a multimedia monster the iPhone 3G really is. Having already revolutionised music mobile phones with iTunes, mobile phone web browsing and SatNav, it seems portable gaming is next in Apples sights. With versions of Pacman and Sega’s popular Super Monkey Ball series already available along with a host of games specifically designed for the App store, the i Phone is definitely flexing its gaming muscles. While this may only be of interest to the gaming half of the iPhone population, it proves what the Apple iPhone is really capable of. Without question, the iPhone 3G is much more than just a phone.