The heads of the gaming teams of several major mobile carriers - Virgin Mobile, Cingular, Vodafone, Verizon Wireless, Sprint-Nextel and Orange - met earlier today at the 2006 Game Developers Conference (GDC) to discuss the current state of their industry and how it can be improved upon.

The panelists agreed that there is currently an overwhelming quantity of mobile games available in the market; that finding and distributing new content is a major challenge for carriers with a large international presence, and that the increasing popularity of 3G is fueling the shift to games with higher-quality graphics and sound.  

Further, all the operators expressed interest in capturing the casual gamers and non-gamers who were completely unfamiliar with mobile gaming, in improving the service and capabilities of their decks, and in using branding to attract a broader range of clients.

Lastly, the panel agreed that they needed to prove that mobile gaming is not a niche product, despite the fact that many more people listen to music and watch TV than play games on their cellphones.  They also agreed that to grow their market, they need to educate those users who are only using their phones for conversation.

The Game Developers Conference 2006 kicked off today, March 20, and will wrap up on March 24, Friday. It's being held at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California.  Stick with us for more updates.