This year is helping to prove that smartphone shopping is growing quickly, but is still a fraction of the whole.

A new industry forecast has been released by eMarketer with regards to retail mobile commerce and its predictions that this channel for shopping will grow in size by 37.2 percent, to reach $57.8 billion, when compared to having been $42.1 billion last year.

The projections also showed that they expect mcommerce to reach $132.7 billion by the close of 2018.

In 2014, mobile commerce in the United States will make up about one fifth of all retail online shopping in the country. However, at the same time it will make up only 1.2 percent of the total retail sales. Therefore, while the report from eMarketer does show that while this channel is having a growing impact on the sales that are occurring on the internet, when it comes to the actual sales made as a whole, it still represents only a tiny sliver.

Included in this mobile commerce estimate are products and services ordered online on a smartphone or tablet.

That said, it does not include the purchase of travel reservations or event tickets in these statistics. In 2014, the report predicts that tablet commerce will make up nearly two out of every three mobile based sales. This is also expected to rise to account for 75 percent of the sales over these devices by 2018. This aligns with the predictions that have been made by previous studies from a range of different sources, which indicated that tablets are the preferred shopping device of mobile consumers when it comes to actually making a purchase.

The mobile commerce research has predicted that sales online (over mobile or PC) will increase by 15.5 percent, this year, to bring them to $304.1 billion. This is an increase over last year’s $263.3 billion. Growth in sales online will make up more than 20 percent of the total retail sales increases in 2014, said the repot. However, at the same time, it also indicated that it will make up only 5.8 percent of the American retail sales total of $4.7 trillion for this year. That figure should grow by nearly 9 percent by 2018.

The game will be brought to smartphones and tablets in a release that will occur this summer.

Nearly a year after Microsoft confirmed that Age of Empires would be coming to the mobile gaming world, the company has finally announced that this previously PC- and console-only experience will be headed to Windows Phone, iOS, and Android app stores as of this summer.

Microsoft has now opened up a pre-registration that grants access to exclusive updates about the apps.

Players are able to pre-register so that they can learn more about the Age of Empires: World Domination mobile gaming app, as soon as news becomes available, as well as gaining access to recent news about the series as a whole. Last June, Redmond announced that its game would be coming to smartphones when it entered into a licensing agreement with KLab Inc. so that the title could be further developed. Equally, though, the company downplayed rumors that have been circulating that would suggest that other Microsoft game favorites would also be adapted for the smaller screen.

This mobile gaming news appears to be an event unto itself at the moment, not to be followed by other titles.

According to Larry Hyrb, the Xbox Live Network director of programming, “There are no further announcements beyond Age of Empires at this time.”

At the same time, the promise made by the release of Age of Empires: World Domination is that the powers of the world will be placed “within your grasp” through the deployment of various forms of complex battle tactics through the use of “simple and intuitive touch gestures.”

The story of the gaming app works over a hundred legendary heroes from history into its web, with characters such as Joan of Arc and the Franks, Cnut the Great and the Vikings, King Arthur and the Celts, and even Atilla the Hun. As of this summer, gamers will no longer be limited to their PCs and consoles. Through their smartphones, they will be able to play in teams with their friends or to challenge other players in order to be able to conquer the world.

A sneak peak of this app was made along with the mobile gaming announcement at the PAX East gaming conference where the Age of Empires and Microsoft team were present.