The fact is most mobile developers hate making Java games. It's an ageing technology that's fiddly to use and doesn't solve the main problem it was designed for: simplifying the process of making games for hundreds of different handsets.

Yet the sad fact is – in Europe at least – the vast majority of mobile games sold are Java titles, so those are the games you have to make.

Thankfully the mobile games market is slowly moving in a better direction, though. That's the view of Tim Closs, who as chief technical officer of London-based outfit Ideaworks3D, should know all about it.

"Two year ago, if I was working for a console or handheld studio, I wouldn't have wanted to get involved in mobile because it's Java-based and you'd have to teach your developers new tools and deal with porting across handsets. Now, however, with N-Gage soon to be joining BREW, that's two native platforms to develop for so hopefully everything finally coming into alignment with mobile," he says.

Ideaworks3D is one of the companies at the vanguard of this shift. It's focusing on making games for high-end devices. For example, its System Rush Evolution was one of the launch games to be released via N-Gage's First Access, while another creation, Need for Speed Underground 2, was one of the first games on Verizon's V CAST service in the US.

The company's other finger in the pie is its Airplay middleware technology, which provides developers a stable foundation with which to make high-end mobile games for platforms such as N-Gage and BREW, as well as Windows Mobile, Series 60 and, eventually, the likes of iPhone and other new devices. And that's plenty of phones – over 100 million and growing.

"I think there now are a lot more developers who are in charge of their own destiny and looking at new business opportunities such as Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and PC casual and that includes mobile too," Closs explains.

"Airplay is ideal for those people because, in terms of mobile, it uses a single binary approach to cover all supported devices and so it fits exactly into the way they already work. It uses the standard C++ programming libraries, is integrated with Visual Studio, ARM development tools and art packages such as 3ds Max and Maya. You can also plug-in your own custom tools if you want to."

Any non-mobile developer readers still with us after that tech-heavy paragraph? Good, because we're not entirely finished with the jargon yet.

The latest version of Airplay – version 3.5 – has further optimisation for upcoming GPU chips such as AMD's Imageon and ARM's Mali, while Nvidia's APX 2500 will be added soon. This is in addition to the existing support for Imagination Technologies' popular PowerVR range.

"We trying to get the message out that with technology like Airplay which is cross-platform and native, mobile isn't as nasty as some handheld and console developers may have thought," Closs says.