I fail to understand why game development is constantly discussed when talking about Android or iOS. I use my phone mostly to increase productivity (email, news, yelp, fandango etc.) and not to play games.

The insane amount of money being made by game devs on these platforms continues to amaze me.

There are two ways to use your phone-gadget-thingy: killing time or saving time. You seem to prefer the latter.

What a false dichotomy. Is the attitude around here so poor that we have to be 100% work or else we look upon their smartphone usage? I suppose die-hard Android VS iOS is still popular. I mean, who can't understand that playing Brickbreaker, or GASP even Angry Birds while on a plane can be a decent way to kill 10 mins during taxiing?

Tell me about it. I have to fight the urge to make snarky comments, given how ridiculous some of the comments here are. Amazed that people like to play games? Oh wow, god forbid people don't want to work or be productive 24/7...

I don't argue that games are a good way to kill some time (I play angry birds myself every so often) - what I find incredible is that people are making as much money as they are, selling games for these platforms. I don't know if any other class of apps are making as much money on these devices as games are - and that disturbs/disappoints me.

Games are appealing to about the widest possible audience. Everybody likes playing games, not everybody is productive in the same way, or works in the same way, etc.

Eeeh, what? The killing time and saving time division of phone usage is common in the mobile industry. There's of course nothing wrong with using the phone to play games or check your Facebook, it's just a very simple way to show two user scenarious.

It doesn't seem like a dichotomy to me. There are two types of food -- meat and vegetables, yet I can have steak and beans on the same plate. Moreover, I may eat one or the other alone depending on my disposition at any given time.

It's often discussed here, I think, because game development on constrained-but-not-too-constrained platforms like iOS and Android presents an interesting set of 'hacker' challenges: how much performance can you extract from the CPU and GPU? How does your UI convey the necessary information on a small screen? Can you fit the resources you need into the small amount of RAM?

As to your other point: a dollar or so for (potentially) hours of entertainment is an excellent value prospect for those of us who do enjoying playing games. Games of all forms have been popular since humans have been human; is it really that much of a leap that some developers are doing well off this ancient impulse? ;^)

There is a growing trend of moving from dedicated platforms like Sony's PSP or Nintendo DS to playing games on high end (but now more common) cell phones.

In the future, you'll see many devices optimized towards gaming. Manufacturers see this as a way to grow the smartphones market.

I guess these games appeal to the younger generation -- which is probably seen as future growth opportunity.

Very interesting additions. But, like the article mentioned, these probably won't show up in actual devices before at least a year.

I really hope Google would try and do something about that. Getting a new $600 phone every year is not exactly something i look forward to.