Mobile gaming revenue in the Asia Pacific is forecast to surpass US$1.8 billion in 2007 and reach $4.6 billion in 2011, according to research firm Gartner Inc. The revenue jump correlates with higher data consumption in countries such as South Korea and Japan and reflects the bigger appetite for mobile gaming in this region, it said. Gartner expects worldwide mobile gaming end-user revenue will grow from $2.9 billion in 2006 to $9.6 billion in 2011; this year should total $4.3 billion, a 49.9% increase from 2006. “Given the ubiquity of mobile phones in many markets and the ease of game-play, mobile gaming is expected to reach more of the global population than has been the case for traditional PC and console gaming,” said Tuong Huy Nguyen, senior research analyst at Gartner. “This will catapult mobile gaming revenue beyond that from mobile TV and adult content, but we still expect it to lag behind mobile music, since music is a more familiar form of entertainment.”