It's simple, easy, and socially acceptable way to spend your time while waiting for someone. Also has a social nature and it's something you can chat about.
Yeah it's superficial, but sometimes superficiality is important.

Phone games are horrible.
I dont know why anyone plays them.

I see a lot of potential in mobile gaming, it's just barely been tapped into thus far. Turn based strategy games could be a very good fit, as could point and click adventures. Sadly, 99% of mobile games suck ass.

I've been playing Castle Clash a lot lately... I don't know what it is about it but I can't put it down! Takes a lotttt of money to make significant progress, so as a F2P I'm pretty limited and everything is a major grind, but it's - somehow - very rewarding. Have no interest in playing anything else at the moment lol.

Don't worry, console games are popping up and more will come sooner rather than later to mobiles. Although in my view that's a loss, mobiles should have software developed to their strengths which are pick-up&play experiences that take into account the touch/tilt inputs. Arcade games really.

I think people just love the idea that they have one electronic device that can do everything they need with it.
They can call people, text, instant message, video call, play a wide range of games, browse, watch movies and then charge it on the train on their way to work/school.
Plus, it's a private device. People like younger brothers and sisters are less likely to delete your saves or damage a disc. which is another reason why people are buying things off Steam and Code cards rather than hardware these days.

As for me personally, I don't have many games on my iPhone. I have a Kindle and has no games on it. I prefer to have my laptop with me at least if I'm travelling somewhere. Touch pads and touch controls have always bothered me, so playing a game with one has never been ideal.

Mobile games are surely not for all gamers! There is no comparison to be made! If you are a hard-core console gamer, you will obviously find playing on the small screen of a phone a bit lame, but for those who ain’t into consoles, like me, they are just a brilliant pass-time. My games are always with me on the go and I absolutely love the mobility factor! Present and future advancements in mobile tech are surely a threat to video games, nothing to panic about though!

I like mobile games when I don't have any other option. But if I can play a console I will usually play that first.
I think that they can be great experiences, but just because they might not be as good as console games or handhelds doesn't mean they aren't good.

You clearly have not play the DS/PSP/N64/GBA/SNES/PS1 emulators on mobile... Playing Crisis Core on my 1080p Galaxy s4 with a psp emulator which upscales the textures like how dolphin does on PC is so damn good and with the Super AMOLED screen, it really does look fap worthy... Like, it makes PSP games look HD and it is just unbelievable... And you can always sync a ps3 controller on to the phone and you can also plug your phone to your TV via HDMI dock

If you don't include that, then there are a bunch of good games on IoS but apart from that, yea mobile is shit excluding the emulators

I personally can't vouch for mobile games. When I first got a smartphone they were addictive and wasted time when I was out of the house, but I got over it really quickly. I rarely play them anymore.