At the MECCA for Games subconference at CTIA earlier this week, a panel of experts talked about the future of mobile gaming. The "Pessimists vs. Optimists" discussion was something worth listening to because the following people have a right to insist that they're right:

• Mike Yuen, Senior Director, Gaming Group, QUALCOMM
• Robert Tercek, Multimedia Networks, GDC's Mobile Symposium
• Matthew Bellows, GM and VP of Marketing, Floodgate Entertainment
• Jason Ford, VP of Strategy and Planning, Namco Networks and formerly from Sprint
• Justin Hall, New Media Research Specialist, Creative Artists Agency
• Douglas Soltys, Editor-in-Chief, QuicklyBored.com

• Pessimism: The American mobile game industry has been around for 5 years. About 15 million subscribers have played a mobile game, 4.8 million have downloaded a game, and 3.9 million have bought a game. Those sound like big numbers, but when you consider how many American phone subscribers there are, the fact that 3.9 have bought a game looks real puny. Is the market really that limited?
  
• Optimism: Those gamers paid 2 billion dollars, baby. That's not too bad. And there's plenty of room for growth.