While consoles and computers were well established, cell phones were still quite basic in comparison. In 1998, you would be happy with a Nokia phone that could display two colors. A brand new game was now coming installed on every new Nokia phone, Snake!. The game was simple but it was played by a massive audience as there were few alternatives. In 2003, with the success of Nintendo's Game Boy line of handheld consoles, Nokia tried to capitalize on cellular gaming and released the N-Gage game. The N-Gage game was not well received by the press or general public, but Nokia persisted with the idea until 2005 before relegating the N-Gage brand to a software service that was to slowly die.
Meanwhile, Microsoft had been producing Windows Mobile for cell phones. These devices offered true multitasking, the software you could purchase online and install from an SD card, advanced calendar syncing, and document viewing among other features. Many of them also offered resistive touch screens. Unfortunately, the complexity of the devices and a poor user experience hampered general uptake of the devices.
Cellular development was not in a good position. There were myriad processor speeds, screen sizes, memory amounts, and phone abilities. Any development, usually in Java for Nokia's Symbian platform, had to cater for the lowest common denominator, meaning game development was not being pushed forward on cellular devices.
