1）尼尔森最新报告显示，截止2011年底，多数35岁以上的美国人已成为智能手机用户，其中有62%曾下载应用程序（以游戏居多），使用移动网络的用户比例也增长了45%。

smartphone OS by age group(from Nielsen)

报告还指出，年轻用户是最乐衷于发短信的群体，几乎人人都喜欢访问Facebook，Android已是美国头号智能手机操作系统，而苹果则是位居第一的移动设备制造商。

有35%的用户今年在移动设备上观看的视频内容超过去年，其中多数视频内容来自YouTube。

2）Alphawise最近针对美国用户的调查报告预测（游戏邦注：该调查由摩根斯坦利委托执行），苹果iPhone在2011年第四季度的iPhone出货量将达3600万部，超过华尔街所预测的2800万部。

有27%受访者表示希望在近期拥有一部iPad，根据这一数据可以预测，2012年iPad全球销量将达8100万部，远超过摩根斯坦利所预测的5200万部。假如苹果降价100美元促销iPad，预计该设备全球销量还将比这一数据增加1500万部。

3）微软近日宣布Dream Build Play Challenge大赛将添加新奖项，鼓励独立开发者针对Windows Phone平台开发游戏产品，并赢取10万美元的奖金。

据微软所称，上一届大赛吸引了来自27个国家的开发者，共有250款游戏参赛。本年度大赛结果将于2012年在西雅图PAX Prime大会上揭晓。

4）据pocketgamer报道，EA工作室Phenomic将向浏览器及手机平台发布《命令与征服：泰伯伦联盟》这款MMO游戏。

command-conquer-tiberium-alliances-mmo(from product-reviews.net)

该游戏是首款变身为MMO产品的《命令与征服》系列游戏，将植入在线状态及news feeds系统，让玩家即时了解游戏进展。

5）Anuman Interactive最近与Big Fish Games签署合作协议，将于2012年通过后者渠道在iPhone和iPad平台发布经典冒险游戏《塞伯利亚之谜》。

syberia(from wurb)

Anuman是在2010年收购法国工作室Microïds时获得了该游戏授权，将把该系列的第1、2款游戏推向移动平台。

6）英国通信服务供应商Ofcom最近报告显示，英国智能手机用户比例已达46%，是欧洲五大国智能手机覆盖率最高的市场，居于其次的是西班牙，智能手机用户比例达45%；日本有93%手机用户使用3G网络。

ownership and use of devices(from Ofcom)

该报告其他调查结果包括：

·30%-40%英国用户通过手机访问社交网络，43%用户喜欢通过手机应用程序或者移动网页访问自己的社交网站交页面。

·多数英国用户每天都要访问自己的社交网络页面。71%拥有社交网络页面的英国用户自称每天至少访问一次社交网络，其中有20%受访者每天至少访问5次。

use of communications services and media(from Ofcom)

·2011年10月份，英国移动网络用户比例接近46%，超过美国（41%）、意大利（40%）、法国（39%）和德国（38%）。英国用户比法国、德国、意大利、美国和西班牙用户更喜欢使用手机发短信、访问应用程序和社交网络、玩游戏。

·在英国、美国和法国，每8名网络用户中就有一者使用游戏主机连接互联网，平板电脑的网络使用率介于6%至9%之间。法国的网络电视使用率最高，其比例达6%（英国是4%）。

7）Quixey最近发布的信息图表显示，尽管开发者都在不遗余力地通过IAP、移动广告、安装奖励等途径实现免费增值游戏的收益，但从总体上看，各手机平台的免费应用数量仍然不足一半。

从该图表中可以看出，售价在50美元以上的应用仅占比0.3%，而1至50美元的应用数量占据32.6%，免费应用占比45%，介于免费与0.99美元的应用占比22%。所以从总体上看，各平台的付费应用比例仍然高达54%左右。

排名前50强的应用开发商所推出的内容在应用商店中仅占比5%。

美国排名前列的各手机平台共有100多万款活跃应用，iOS占领了54.7%的应用市场份额，Android则是35.5%，黑莓为7.7%，微软仅占2.1%。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

apps economy(from Quixey)

1）Most Adults Under 35 Own a Smartphone

By John Paul Titlow

It hasn’t even been five years since Apple unveiled the first iPhone. The device wasn’t the world’s first smartphone, but was arguably the most capable and well-designed and Apple’s marketing prowess it made it the first must-have gadget of its kind. Soon after came Android, which has powered increasingly impressive devices by a range of manufacturers.

The growth of smartphone adoption and associated mobile technologies has been staggering. As of the end of 2011, the majority of U.S. adults under the age of 35 now own a smartphone.

Sixty-two percent of them have downloaded apps (mostly games), and mobile Web usage among these consumers has grown 45% since last year.

These are just a few of the stats in Nielsen’s latest report on the state of mobile media and consumer behavior. Much of the data won’t shock anyone. Teens text more than the rest of us, everyone is glued to Facebook, Android is the top smartphone OS and Apple is the top manufacturer.

Video is huge among smartphone owners, who watched about 35% more video content on their devices than they did last year. From the looks of Nielsen’s list of top apps, most of that video is coming from YouTube.（source:readwriteweb）

2）Survey says Apple on track to sell 190M iPhones, 81M iPads in 2012

By Darrell Etherington

Apple could be on track for a much stronger year than most analysts predict in 2012, if a recent Alphawise survey of consumers in the U.S. conducted for financial services firm Morgan Stanley (via Fortune) proves accurate. iPhones and iPads in particular appear to be so in demand that the devices will easily smash records next year.

In a note to clients, Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty shared the results of the Alphawise survey, comparing its results to Morgan Stanley’s existing estimates. Based on the survey, she suggests Apple could ship as many as 36 million iPhones in the fourth quarter of 2011, considerably higher than the 28 million predicted by Wall Street. Not only that, but she also says that according to survey data, the iPhone should do even better during the first quarter of 2011, selling as many as 41 million units worldwide.

The iPad stands to gain from the desire expressed by 27 percent of respondents to own a tablet in the near term, something that Huberty believes could put Apple on track to sell 81 million iPads globally in 2012, which is much higher than the 52 million Morgan Stanley was predicting independently of the survey. And if Apple wants to boost sales even further, Huberty estimates that a $100 price cut for the iPad could result in about 15 million more sales worldwide.（source:gigaom）

3）Windows Phone developers can now enter Microsoft’s Dream.Build.Play Challenge

Stefanie Fogel

Microsoft today announced it’s adding a new category to its Dream.Build.Play Challenge focusing exclusively on games created for Windows Phone. The annual contest gives independent developers the chance to create games for Microsoft platforms and compete for over $100,000 in cash prizes.

Last year, Microsoft says the Dream.Build.Play Challenge attracted developers from around the world, amassing 250 game submissions from 27 countries. Finalists in the competition are judged by a panel of game industry professionals from Microsoft based on three criteria: innovation, fun factor, and production quality.

Microsoft has been working to build up its mobile platform. Earlier this year, the company previewed some Xbox Live games and features that would be making their way to Windows Phone at the annual Gamescom event in Cologne, Germany, including Avatar customization, game add-ons, and parental controls. By opening up the Dream.Build.Play Challenge to mobile game developers, Microsoft can attract new talent to the platform.

The finalists of this year’s Dream.Build.Play Challenge will be able to show off their games during PAX Prime 2012 in Seattle. Registration details will be available soon. In the meantime, Microsoft says developers interested in the competition can find general information on the official website and Facebook fan page.（source:venturebeat）

4）Command & Conquer franchise goes mobile in upcoming freemium MMOG Tiberium Alliances

by Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman

The constant stream of freemium titles gracing mobile devices means it’s painfully easy for some to become lost in the flow, but any game with a history as rich as the Command & Conquer franchise will always have an advantage.

Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances from EA-owned studio Phenomic, is an upcoming cross-platform free-to-play MMO, for both browsers and mobile devices, wherein you’ll have to build strategic alliances with other real life players.

Beta phase engage

“Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances is the first MMO and first free-to-play game for the long-running Command & Conquer series. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to forge new ground with this acclaimed franchise,” said Martin Löhlein, senior producer at Phenomic.

“We’re hoping to deliver an experience that will allow our loyal fans to play their favourite franchise anywhere they go, while introducing the exciting world of Tiberium to new players.”

The game will employ live status streams and news feeds, which will update and encourage you to react quickly and tactically.

It’ll be the second of two new games set in the C&C Tiberium story world, with the Bioware-developed title Command & Conquer Generals 2 also on the way.（source:pocketgamer）

5）Big Fish Games extends partnership with French outfit Anuman to bring Syberia to iOS

by Keith Andrew

Ten years after the franchise first launched on PC, Anuman Interactive has signed a deal with Big Fish Games to bring Syberia to both iPhone and iPad in 2012.

The deal, which marks an extension of the existing distribution-based relationship between the two parties, covers the first two chapters in the Syberia saga, and will see Big Fish push the title out across both iOS and PC at an unspecified date.

“The Syberia license is a must for all adventure game enthusiasts, and is a great addition to our product catalog,” said Big Fish founder Paul Thelen.

“We are looking forward to a lasting partnership with Anuman Interactive, a company that shares our mission of offering high-quality video games that appeal to a very wide audience, from novices to experienced gamers.”

Syberian shift

Anuman itself only got its hands on the Syberia license in 2010 when it acquired fellow French outfit Microïds in 2010.

Having already launched across a multitude of platforms – PS2, Xbox and DS all previously playing host – the firm claims it’s now turning its attention to the growing roster of digital download driven formats, starting with smartphones.

“In the framework of our international development and in line with our strategy to adapt our licenses to new digital supports, it was essential to transfer Syberia 1 and 2 to mobile devices,” added Anumen CEO Stéphane Longeard.

“We are delighted to be co-editing these adaptations with Big Fish Games, and we are convinced that it is the perfect partnership for targeting the general public. And, as far as we are concerned, we are continuing to work on a follow-up to the license.” （source:pocketgamer）

6）46 per cent of UK internet users access web on their phone

by Tim Green

One of many findings in a huge Ofcom report.

UK communications regulator Ofcom has just released its annual Communications Market Report, which looks at worldwide usage trends in various media areas such as web, TV, radio, music and social media.

It’s a huge bit of work and it’s available as a PDF here. Be aware that some of the stats measure trends up to the end of 2010 only.

There are interesting snippets about mobile web, with the report suggesting that 46 per cent of consumers in the UK are using smartphones, giving it the highest smartphone penetration in Europe, with Spain in second position at 45 per cent.

Mind you Japan is in another league, with 93 per cent of its consumers using devices with 3G connections.

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Here are some selected findings.

Social Media

•    Between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of UK consumers use a mobile phone to access their social network profile page. UK consumers are the most likely to access a social networking website via a mobile phone, with just over four in ten (43 per cent) accessing their profile page via an app or the web browser on their mobile phone.

•    The majority of UK consumers with a social networking profile visit it on a daily basis. 71 per cent of those interviewed in the UK with a social networking profile claimed to visit a social networking site at least once a day. This includes 20 per cent who visit a social networking website five times a day or more.

Mobile broadband

•    Mobile broadband prices in the UK were the second lowest after Italy. Prices in the UK, Germany and the US increased between July 2010 and July 2011 due to higher prices for high-use connections, as some operators withdrew tariffs with the most generous inclusive data bundles and moved toward tiered pricing based on data use.

Smartphones

•    Smartphone take-up is highest in the UK (46 per cent of all mobile users) and Spain (45 per cent) among the big five European economies. Ownership of smartphones nearly doubled in the UK between February 2010 and August 2011

Mobile web

•    Nearly half (46 per cent) of UK internet users also accessed internet services on their mobile phone in October 2011. This was more than in the US (41 per cent), Italy (40 per cent), France (39 per cent) and Germany (38 per cent). In all countries surveyed across the period, use more than doubled between 2008 and 2011. UK users are also more likely to use a mobile phone to send text messages, use applications, access social network sites and play games than their counterparts in France, Germany, Italy, the US and Spain.

New devices

•    New internet-connected devices are gaining a foothold. In the UK, the US and France, more than one in eight internet users use a games console to access the internet, and tablet computers are used by between 6  per cent and 9 per cent of internet users in all six countries surveyed. Use of internet-connected TVs is highest in France, at 6 per cent of internet users (4 per cent in the UK). （source:mobile-ent）

7）If Freemium Is In, Then Why Do Paid Apps Still Reign Supreme?

Rip Empson

Earlier today, we posted on some data from Pando Networks that shows that free-to-play online games, often overlooked in the hype around social and casual games, are growing just as fast and as furiously around the globe as their counterparts. Obviously, much of this has to do with the industry’s transition from paid to freemium models — the examples of which are numerous not only in online gaming, but for web and mobile apps on the whole — and even startups and SMBs making their way in the consumer Web.

While many of us probably take the rise of freemium for granted by now, some new stats and a nifty infographic from Quixey show that we are still very much in a transitional phase. As app developers work out the best ways to monetize their free products via in-app purchases, mobile advertising, rewards, deals, offers, incentivized downloads, and so on, free apps still comprise less than half of all mobile apps — across top mobile platforms.

Of course, as you can see in Quixey’s infographic below, apps that cost $50 and above only comprise about 0.3 percent of mobile apps, whereas apps priced between $1 and $50 make up about 32.6 percent of the app population. Considering 45 percent of apps are free today, that leaves the remaining some 22 percent of apps pricing between free and $0.99. So, upwards of 54 percent of mobile apps will cost you some real, hard currency to download.

And, in conjunction with this, it’s interesting to see that 60 percent of the “most buzzed about apps” have the words “free” or “lite” in the title, which seems to point to the fact that app stores are becoming increasingly crowded and overpopulated, so the best way to reach eyeballs and attract downloads is to assure consumers that the app being presented is cheap — if not free.

If that’s not enough to tip you off to the overwhelming increase of app developers jumping into the game (along with the hike in the total number of apps), the infographic shows that the top 50 app developers only produce about 5 percent of the content in app stores. Of course, potentially part of the reason that they’re top developers is that they produce less content — or what content they do produce is of a high quality. This is where the drek comes into play, those “cr-apps” that are pumped out as if on an assembly line.

Of the hundreds of thousands of developers out there, few are having their voices heard, and it seems that overproducing and churning out apps (hence the over one million active apps now available on top mobile platforms) isn’t helping their cause, either. The infographic poses some interesting questions for app developers — and app consumers. (Especially seen in tandem with Flurry’s report earlier this week on developer adoption of Android vs. iOS.)（source:techcrunch）