Kicking off the 7th Mobile Games Forum in London, Alistair Hill, lead analyst at comScore, was quietly confident about growth in the games market.

According to comScore's analytical data, there's been a 23 percent growth year-on-year in terms of the number of Europeans downloading mobile games between December 2008 to December 2009.

As you'd expect, growth is higher in terms of the number of people who have downloaded a full free game at 30 percent.

There's also been a steady growth in number of people who have a purchased a mobile game at 9 percent

The peak period for purchase activity remains Christmas. This is because most people purchase games when they have a new phone.

Five percent of people with a new phone buy a game within the first two months. This level drops off to one percent by 19 months. This is why Christmas promotions are so important for the industry.

What's significant about the impact of the iPhone on mobile gaming however is that 16 percent of new iPhone owners buy a games in the first month and this activity doesn't drop off much over time. After 19 months, over 10 percent of iPhone owners are still buying games.

As the industry becomes more iPhone-like with the release of more Android devices, this will drive the overall market higher, Hill said.

ComScore predicts that on average, each European iPhone owner has downloaded 21 apps, of which 11 are games (free and paid).

This means that while Nokia accounts for 34 percent of mobile internet-enabled devices in Europe, Samsung 18 percent, Sony Ericsson 14 percent and iPhone only 9 percent, when it comes to devices used for purchasing mobile games, both Apple and Nokia are tied at 25 percent of the market.