Did the title catch you a little off guard? Don’t be surprised. It should be noted that women make up 59% of the cellphone gaming market and I suspect that this number is going to keep climbing.

Robin Taylor grew up playing marathon nights of Crazy Eights, backgammon, and chess with her parents. Today when the 45-year-old Brockton mother of six can spare a moment, she loads a round of solitaire on her BlackBerry phone.

“I just want to keep my mind going,” Taylor said. “I do 10 things at a time.”

Cellphone solitaire doesn’t take the 100 hours that full-fledged electronic fantasy games can require, but cellphone carriers and game publishers are betting that those five minutes could turn gaming on cellphones and PDAs into a billion-dollar industry. While the action-heavy console world of shooter games and buxom babe warriors appeals to many men, women are driving about two-thirds of mobile gaming revenue by playing classics like Tetris and Mahjong.

Women make up 59 percent of all consumers who play games on cellphones, according to Parks Associates , a research firm. And they drive more than 60 percent of the revenue in almost every genre of mobile games, according to research firm Telephia Inc . The exception is in action and adventure, where men are the chief players… Source: Boston.com