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每日观察:Google I/O大会及GetJar收购等消息(5.11)

1)据Lady Geek网站最新报告显示,在女性智能手机用户下载的应用程序中,游戏所占比例达75%。

该报告指出,由于大众对游戏玩家仍抱有刻板印象,大多数女性用户并不认为自己是“游戏玩家”。该调查同时还发现,50%的女性用户体验所谓的休闲游戏,但英国实际上仅有4%的女性游戏开发者。

除此之外,Lady Geek还公布了另一个令人意外的数据,那就是购买智能手机的女性用户是男性的两倍,但却有78%的女性智能手机用户从来不下载任何手机应用。

Lady Geek认为造成这种现象的原因在于,目前的市场上充斥着太多应用程序,这一点让用户(尤其是那些时间紧迫者)感到无从搜索和筛选。Lady Geek为此专门推出了自己的在线电视节目向女性用户推荐最佳手机应用,希望以此解决这种问题。

mobile-gaming

mobile-gaming

2)独立应用商店GetJar日前收购了手机应用搜索推荐引擎Infrinity,计划利用该工具提高基于浏览器应用商店的产品检索服务。Infrinity公司成立于2010年,其应用推荐系统会辨别用户的相似性,并使用算法对用户进行定位。

3)Oxygen8 Communications公司日前向手机应用开发商Swipe Entertainment投资,推动后者开拓休闲游戏市场。Swipe Entertainment是一家拥有自主知识产权,并以开发广告游戏和英国电视节目《The Cube》的同名iPhone应用而得名。Oxygen8首席执行官称Swipe团队拥有20多年的游戏行业、手机内容和技术开发经验,希望能结合Swipe的这些优势辅助Oxygen的业务拓展。

Smurfs' Village

Smurfs' Village

4)因为《蓝精灵村庄》的付费功能备受争议,Capcom最近更新了该游戏版本的内置付费系统,玩家每次在15分钟内只可付费下载5件游戏虚拟商品。观察者认为,虽然苹果已更新其IAP(应用内置计费系统),Capcom也已采取自律行动,这两者相结合未必能够彻底解决免费游戏诱使少儿过度消费的问题,但至少可以极大减少这类事件的发生概率。

5)在日前的Google I/O大会上,谷歌Anroid产品开发经理Hugo Barra宣布,Android设备激活量至今达1亿次,现在每天都有40万部Android设备被激活(游戏邦注:去年12月份Android移动设备的每日激活量为30万部),并称谷歌应与36家手机设备制造商、215家运营商和45万名Android应用开发者共同分享这一喜讯。除此之外,Android Market的应用程序共达20万种,平均每两个月的用户安装量为10亿次,该应用商店总下载量已达45亿次。

6)据谷歌高管Hugo Brra透露,目前已有10家运营商和设备制造商确认将把旗下的移动设备更新至最新版本的Android操作系统(游戏邦注:最近调查显示,仅有4%的Android移动设备运行的是Gingerbread版本的操作系统)。这些同意将操作系统更新到最新版本的公司包括HTC、三星、索爱、LG和摩托罗拉,以及威瑞森、沃达丰、Sprint、AT&T、T-Mobile。

android-ice-cream-sandwich

android-ice-cream-sandwich

7)谷歌宣布其最新版本的Android操作系统Ice Cream Sandwich将同时支持运行于智能手机、平板电脑和上网本设备。除此之外,谷歌还介绍了最新版Honeycomb(3.1)的具体情况,该操作系统的最大优势在于增加了通过USB进行控制和设置,也就是说用户可以将键盘、鼠标和游戏控制器插入平板电脑的USB接口,操控设备中的应用程序和游戏。

8)移动广告网站InMobi宣布推出移动及Android应用付费解决方案SmartPay,该服务将直接与其广告网站绑定。SmartPay支持开发商在应用中植入一个安全的内置计费系统,以便用户通过运营商计费服务、信用卡、PayPal和本地手机钱包等方式付费。SmartPay的一大特色在于,它支持开发商通过初次广告印象、应用内置付费功能等追踪用户的消费习惯,从而评估用户的付费购买意愿,为开发商提供即时反馈服务。SmartPay将于未来两三个月投入测试,并于今年第三季度正式上线。

9)Capcom旗下的新工作室Beeline Interactive最近发布了其首款iPhone游戏《Flo Glo》,该益智游戏要求玩家将同种颜色的蠕虫连接在一起,共含有60个关卡,有两种游戏模式可供选择,拥有在线积分排行榜功能,售价1.99美元。

glo_flo

glo_flo

10)澳大利亚开发商Wabo Studios的第一款iPhone游戏《The Crimsons》并不成功,Appspy网站评价该游戏缺乏恐怖元素,但该工作室汲取教训,最近准备推出僵尸题材的冒险游戏《Dead Escape》。从该游戏的截图来看,它是一款结合了小成本电影、益智解谜、黑色幽默等元素,并且极具恐怖视觉效果的游戏,不过Wabo目前仍未公布其正式发布日期。

Dead Escape

Dead Escape

11.手机社交游戏工作室Astro Ape Studios推出了第三款iPhone游戏《Monsterz Revenge》(游戏邦注:该公司去年被DeNA收购,之前开发的两款游戏分别是《Dessert Heroes》和《Office Heros》),尽管这款新游戏添加了许多迷你游戏元素,不过insidemobileapps对其评价是其美术设计很棒,但玩法缺乏创意。目前该游戏在iPhone应用榜单中位于第27名。

Monsterz Revenge

Monsterz Revenge

12.谷歌高管Vic Gundotra在最近的Google I/O大会上发言,表达了他对Android机器人啃食苹果这幅画(如下图所示)的理解。他认为Android与苹果之间确实存在竞争关系,但这种竞争只会促使两家公司更加奋发向上,而这一点也有利于应用开发商获得更多益处。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

Android logo eating an apple

Android logo eating an apple

1)YouGov study claims 75% of smartphone apps downloaded by females are games, but warns of overwhelming choice.

75% of the smartphone apps downloaded by women are games, according to a new report published by Lady Geek, based on a survey conducted by YouGov Six Sense in the UK.

The report found that the majority of women do not identify themselves as ‘gamers’ though, due to ongoing stereotypes that Lady Geek says prevents women from feeling a part of the gaming world.

The research also found that while 50% of all women now play so-called casual games, only 4% of all game developers in the UK are female.

ME asked Lady Geek if it had any more app-specific data from the report, and the company came up with a startling claim, saying that women are twice as likely to buy smartphones as men, yet 78% of women with smartphones have not downloaded any apps.

The company says that the key reason is the overwhelming choice of apps, particularly for people who don’t feel they have the time to search for them. Lady Geek has launched its own online TV show to highlight the best apps, in an effort to help solve this problem.(source:mobile-ent

2)GetJar acquires Infrinity

Plans to use recommendation engine to improve app discovery on its browser-based app store.

Infrinity was founded by Anand Venkataraman and Dave Smiddy in July 2010 to attack discovery through inference, friends and affinity.

Its system identifies similar users and uses algorithms to locate and multiply them.

“Mobile app discovery continues to be one of the biggest problems in the evolving mobile applications market,” said Venkataraman.

“GetJar’s use of Infrinity’s technology will provide new features that improve discovery to a critical number of publishers worldwide, continuing Infrinity’s goal of making discovery a two-way street.”

GetJar knows the nightmare of discovery as well as any app store owner; it has 75,000 apps available and 1.5bn downloads to date.(source: mobile-ent

3)Oxygen8 buys stake in app maker Swipe

Investment takes mobile services specialist into the casual games space.

Swipe Entertainment makes its own IP as well as advergames and is best known as the creator of the iPhone app for the UK TV show ‘The Cube’.

The app was launched at the end of last year and remained the top selling UK game on the app chart for ten weeks.

Oxygen8 has expanded steadily from its core of mobile messaging and transactions, and has built out into marketing, mobile sites and apps.

It has good links into the broadcasting sector, which explains the impulse behind this deal.

Shane Leahy, Group CEO at Oxygen8 Communications, said: “The team at Swipe has over 20 years experience in the games industry, and with mobile phone content and technology.

This experience has enabled Swipe to gain an in-depth insight into the gaming market, as well as the latest consumer trends and technological developments, meaning that they provide the perfect complement to Oxygen’s core business activities.”(source: mobile-ent)

4)Capcom limits in-app purchases in Smurfs’ Village to 5 items per 15 minutes

A well placed source informed PocketGamer.biz at the time that Apple had told the publisher ‘in no uncertain terms’ that customer complaints levelled at Smurfs’ Village simply weren’t acceptable – something Capcom later refuted.

The publisher might have been reluctant to admit there was a problem to begin with, but it’s still taken steps to ensure Smurfs’ Village isn’t the subject of negative headlines in the future.

As detailed over on Pocket Gamer, the latest update to the game includes a new cap, which prevents players from downloading more than five items via in-app purchases within a 15 minute period.

While the combination of Apple’s refreshed IAP rules and Capcom’s self-imposed cap doesn’t rule out the possibility of users paying for goods without realising, it does make such occurrences far less likely, and severely limits their impact if and when they do happen.(source:pocketgamer

5)Google I/O: Android device total hits 100 million as Android Market tops 200,000 apps

Google’s product development manager for Android, Hugo Barra, kicked off this year’s Google I/O conference with something of a stats fest, revealing that 100 million Android devices have now been activated.

Speaking during the Android keynote, Barra celebrated the platform’s inclusive set up, claiming its success was down not only to Google, but also the 36 OEMs, 215 carriers and 450,000 developers signed up to the OS.

Apps away

Barra confirmed that Google is now activating 400,000 devices a day, up from the 300,000 a day rate the firm announced back in December.

Those activations are spread over a total of 310 licensed devices in 112 different countries around the world.

Much light was also cast on Android Market, which Barra said now sports 200,000 apps in total. Consumers are installing an average of 1 billion apps every 60 days, bringing total downloads since launch to 4.5 billion.(source:pocketgamer

6)Google I/O: 10 carriers and OEMs commit to update Android devices for 18 months

In what could prove to be a landmark agreement, Barra revealed that a total of 10 carriers and manufacturers have committed to updating their devices to the latest Android OS for 18 months after release.

Partner power

It’s a key announcement, if only because it’s perceived that both parties are reluctant to roll out updated version of Android to existing handsets as it might slow the take up of new devices.

As a result, the majority of consumers tend to end up running an older version of the platform that doesn’t support all of the most recent apps – a fact signified by the fact that just 4 percent of all Android devices run Gingerbread, despite it launching back in December.

However, now HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, and Motorola, as well as operators Verizon, Vodafone, Sprint, AT&T and T Mobile have all agreed to release the latest version of the OS to customers who own existing hardware for 18 months, as long as the hardware in question can run it.(source:pocketgamer

7)Google I/O: Ice Cream Sandwich to run across both smartphones and tablets

Though its name has been known for some time, Google used its I/O conference in San Francisco to shed more light on the next version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich.

Rather than splitting the platform between smartphones and tablets, however, Ice Cream Sandwich will be the first version of Android specifically designed to run across both sets of devices, also offering support for notebooks.

Google also detailed the latest version of Honeycomb (3.1), which is being made available to Xoom customers on Verizon 3G immediately.

From a gaming perspective, its biggest advance is support for additional controllers via USB.

In short, this means that everything from keyboards, mice and game controllers can be plugged into the tablet’s USB port to take control of apps and games.(source:pocketgamer

8)Ad network InMobi expands with SmartPay in-app billing platform

Hot the heels of Google’s own in-app payment platform for Android Market, InMobi has lifted in the lid on SmartPay – a mobile and Android monetisation solution that directly links to its ad network.

InMobi claims SmartPay will enable developers to equip their releases with a secure in-app purchase system, allowing consumers to pay using carrier billing, credit cards, PayPal and local mobile wallets.

SmartPay’s key differentiator from the stand alone in-app billing systems already available, in InMobi’s view, is the ability for developers to track users’ habits, from any initial ad impression through to the in-app purchases that follow.

Integrating with InMobi’s existing analytics system, SmartPay will serve as a measure of actual purchase behaviour, providing studios with a real-time ad-serving feedback loop.

SmartPay is already active with a number of InMobi’s clients, but will move into private beta within the next 60 to 90 days before its official launch in Q3 2011.(source:pocketgamer

9)Capcom Make Beeline For Glo Flo on iPhone

If you can work out exactly what’s going on in Flo Glo from the screenshot below, then you can probably already see The Matrix and have no desire to play games.

If you can’t, however, and have a bit of a penchant for puzzle games, then you’ll be interested to know that Capcom’s new mobile arm, Beeline Interactive, have released their first game.

Flo Glo asks you to reunite glow worm pals, without them bumping into worms of other colours (presumably because they don’t know each other that well and it would be properly awkward).

Sound easy?

Well, there are 60 levels, several game modes, and an online leaderboard, so it’s not.(source:appspy

10)Wabo Studios’s Dead Escape Lurching Onto iPhone

‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again’ is a mantra most commonly associated with motivational speakers and perennial runners-up.

Suitably inspired by the above life motto, Australian developers Wabo Studios are ready to step back into the melting App Store pot with their zombie adventure Dead Escape.

Wabo’s first foray onto iPhone was The Crimsons, an interactive horror novella, which we criticised for its brevity and absence of tension.

Hopefully, the Sydney-based team have learnt their lessons from The Crimsons experience, and will shock us to our very core over the course of 1 trillion levels – ok, at least 10 then – when Dead Escape goes on sale.

Speaking of which, a release date for this B-movie / puzzle solving / black comedy pastiche hasn’t been confirmed yet, BUT…we have got some lovely screenshots for you.(source:appspy

11.Astro Ape Studios Releases Monsterz Revenge on iPhoneMay

Social-mobile game developer, Astro Ape Studios, which was acquired by DeNA last year, has released a new title for the iPhone by the name of Monsterz Revenge. The company’s third application, following behind the games of Dessert Heroes and Office Heroes, Monsterz Revenge is similarly natured in both its design and freemium monetization model.

The only issue with Monsterz Revenge is its lack of originality. This is still a game that’s been done many times before. It is true that there is a greater focus on mini-games, but few are available early on. This means users will spend a great deal of time within the virtual space part of the game.

Overall, Monsterz Revenge is a decent game that at least tries to be a little different, but at its core, it still lacks something special. Mostly, it feels a bit bland in both play and creativity.

The real appeal will be based on whether or not the monster art — which is good — will be attractive to players. As it stands, Monsterz Revenge is currently #27 on the top free iPhone apps list.(source:insidemobileapps

12.Google on Apple: We embrace the battle for developers

Google executive Vic Gundotra continued his pattern of Apple snarkiness at today’s at Google I/O conference in San Francisco, where his presentation included an image of Google’s Android logo eating an apple (which I’ve included in this post). So one of the reporters at the conference followed-up, asking how much the Android team is actually thinking about the iPhone on a day-to-day

basis.

Gundotra didn’t exactly backpedal, but he didn’t take an overtly confrontational tone either. He tried to paint the jabs he took at Apple today and in the past as fun, saying, “We try not to take ourselves too seriously.” Obviously there’s an element of competitiveness, but he argued that it only “inspires” both teams to work harder.

“It’s great to be in a battle for the hearts and minds of developers,” Gundotra said.(source:venturebeat


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