1）Gartner最新报告显示，2011年全球智能手机销量将近5亿部，比2010年增长58%。与此同时，第四季度智能手机销量达1.49亿部，比2010年同一时期增长47%。

虽然苹果是该时期排名第一的智能手机制造商，但低端智能手机制造商中兴在该时期增长速度最快，在第四季度的智能手机出货量达1890万部，同比上一年增长71%。

但Gartner预测，在iPhone 4S热消退之后，智能手机市场发展速度将逐渐减缓。

2）英国电影和电视艺术学院最近宣布2012年BAFTA电子游戏大获入围名单，并将于3月16日公布最终评选结果。

Zee-3推出的iOS游戏《Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint》、Denki游戏《Quarrel》、PopCap游戏《Peggle HD》、EA游戏《死亡空间》iOS版本，以及Somethin’Else游戏《The Nightjar》将与《超级马里奥3D大陆》共同角逐最佳手机及掌上游戏大奖（游戏邦注：2011年该奖项的冠军是Chillingo和ZeptoLab推出的《割绳子》，而《Quarrel》不久前曾夺得苏格兰BAFTA大奖的桂冠）。

Playdom游戏《Gardens of Time》、EA Playfish游戏《模拟人生社交版》则与《Resistance 3》、《Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure》、《I Am Playr》、《Monstermind》同时获得最佳在线网页游戏提名。

3）尼尔森最新针对美国平板电脑家庭用户的调查结果显示，在2011年第四季度，每10个12岁以下的儿童中就有7人会使用平板电脑，比上一季度增长了9%。

尽管儿童教育类应用很有市场，苹果在1月份宣布App Store拥有2万款教育类应用，iPad拥有150万校园用户，但最受欢迎的平板电脑应用却是游戏产品，77%儿童在该设备上体验《愤怒的小鸟》等游戏，而教育类应用使用者比例则是55%。

55%家长反映孩子在旅途中使用平板电脑，41%在餐厅中使用平板电脑。

调查还发不尽然，多数儿童只在平板电脑上体验单独娱乐内容，仅有15%儿童通过该设备与好友和家人交流。

4）韩国手机游戏公司Gamevil最近公布财报显示，2011年公司智能手机收益为2740万美元，占其总营收的四分之三左右。

从整体上看，该公司2011年总营收为426亿韩元（约3750万美元），同比增长39；净收益为161亿韩元（约1420万美元）；第四季度总收益为165亿韩元（1450万美元），同比增长65%，净收益为58亿韩元（510万美元）。

该公司预计2012年销售额将增长58%，达到650亿韩元（约5730万美元），并将发布40款游戏。该公司最近市值达3.55亿美元，股票价格上涨为64.07美元左右。

5）前LucasArts成员Randy Farmer、Chip Morningstar、Noah Falstein和Gary Winnick最近宣布Suddenly Social平台正式上线，该工具将帮助开发者处理手机/社交多人游戏的服务器管理、部署、运营等问题。

据该公司所称，已有一款Facebook游戏（其DAU超过100万）采用该服务，Suddenly Social还添加了跨游戏、跨设备和基于地理位置的信息服务等社交工具。

6）手机游戏公司Ngmoco瑞典工作室主管Ben Cousins在最近采访中表示，他认为平板电脑游戏应像掌机游戏看齐，更具沉浸感，这类游戏应充分利用平板电脑的宽屏优势，提供比智能手机更长久的游戏体验。

平板电脑与智能手机不一样，它需要创造堪比《神秘海域》、《上古卷轴5：天际》的这种高端游戏体验，但也不可完全照搬掌机游戏的做法，开发商需考虑平板电脑持续连网、触摸屏控制系统、信息推送服务和免费增值模式等特点来设计游戏。

7）应用分析公司App Annie最近报告显示，从全球范围来看，挪威App Store平均下载收益最可观，平均每次下载可创收37美分，其次是澳大利亚（32美分），第三名是美国（22美分），而中国市场平均仅为4美分。

中国和日本是下载量增长率最高的地区，中国在2011年下载量增幅高达293%，收益则增长187%。日本同一时期下载量增幅达98%，收益增长88%。

App Annie指出，中国和日本应用市场的地位日益上升，国际应用发行商应通过更优质的本土化服务挖掘这些市场潜力。

报告还指出，日本榜单第一名应用所创收益相当于美国榜单第一应用的90%，而美国榜首冠军创收比中国榜首产品多10倍以上（游戏邦注：App Annie指出日本有六分之一的智能手机用户，所以应用发行商仅需收获一小部分日本用户，就能实现大量收益）。

需要指出的是，美国排名第一的产品，一般都是全球热门应用，而日本榜单之首则多为本土应用。

采用IAP模式的应用所创造收益超过非IAP应用，截止2011年12月，前者所创收益是后者的2.2倍左右。

App Annie报告还显示，iPad应用在2011年的下载量增长了200%，而iPhone下载增幅则是70%。iPad创造了30%的iOS应用收益，iPhone和iPod touch创造收益占70%。

（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）

1）472 million smartphones sold globally in 2011

by Zen Terrelonge

Accounts for almost one-third of all mobile device sales.

The near half billion smartphone units sold in 2011, is up by 58 per cent from 2010, according to researcher Gartner.

Meanwhile, Q4 smartphone sales reached 149 million devices, which is a 47 per cent growth on Q4 2010.

As we reported, Apple became the top smartphone manufacturer in Q4 thanks to the iPhone 4S. However, it was Chinese low-end manufacturer ZTE that experienced the fastest growing adoption behind high-end Apple, shipping 18.9 million units to rise by 71 per cent on the previous year.

The boost for sales to ZTE and fellow China-based firm Huawei, came as they rolled out into new markets and improved their user experience.

Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, said: “Western Europe and North America led most of the smartphone growth for Apple during the fourth quarter of 2011. In Western

Europe the spike in iPhone sales in the fourth quarter saved the overall smartphone market after two consecutive quarters of slow sales.”

While the smartphone market experienced its best year so far, Gartner predicts it will slow, as clamour for the iPhone 4S dies down.（source:mobile-ent）

2）Social and mobile games nominated at BAFTA awards

By Jim Squires

While the video games industry still doesn’t have an “Oscars” of its own, there are plenty of organizations out there that are trying to change that. One of the most respected of these, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, has just announced its list of nominees for the 2012 BAFTA Video Game Awards. And while big budget studio titles like Batman: Arkham City,

Portal 2, and Skyrim make up the bulk of nominations in most categories, there are a few awards included that you might not have expected to see in such a show.

This year’s video game BAFTA’s will feature awards recognizing excellence in handheld gaming, as well as browser-based titles. This second category includes more than a few social favorites found on Facebook.

And the nominees are…

Mobile and Handheld

•Dead Space

•Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint

•Peggle HD

•Quarrel

•Super Mario Land 3D

•The Nightjar

Online – Browser

•Gardens of Time

•I Am Playr

•Monstermind

•Resistance 3

•Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure

•The Sims Social

There are a few interesting things to note with some of these nominees. Firstly, Peggle came out in 2007, and while Peggle HD hit the iPad in the last year, it’s still a nomination for a game that’s essentially unchanged from five years ago. Second, two of the browser nominations (Resistance 3 and Skylanders) are browser-based tie-ins for existing console games – but neither of the games they’re tied in to are nominated for anything.

It’s also worth noting that Bastion, our pick for best PC game of 2011, is nominated in two categories as well; Debut Game and Game Innovation.

So how do BAFTA’s picks for best social and mobile stand up against our own? Be sure to check out our Best of 2011 posts to find out.（source:gamezebo）

3）Yes, It’s True: Kids Are Tablet Fiends. And Gaming Apps Are The Winners

Ingrid Lunden

If you own a tablet and have children, chances are that this will not come as news to you. For those who don’t but work in mobile, it’s something worth remembering when you’re concocting up your next big product: Kids are crazy about tablets.

According to some research out today from Nielsen in the U.S., in households that own a tablet, seven out of 10 children under the age of 12 use them. That usage is on the rise: those numbers are for Q4 2011, and are a nine percent increase on the quarter before.

We’ve seen a lot of moves already from large companies looking to court kids in the tablet space. They include companies like Amazon moving into children’s publishing to boost kids’ content for their Kindles. And Apple has also been stepping up, in January laying claim to 20,000 educational apps in the App Store, and 1.5 million iPads being used in schools.

But while that sounds very high and noble, this is not, by a country mile, the most popular content, according to Nielsen. That honor goes to games, with 77 percent of kids playing things like “Angry Birds” (my son’s favorite) or the knock-off “Cut the Birds” (my daughter’s). Educational apps come only second at 55 percent.

Tablets are also, it seems, joining games consoles, books and toys as distractions for kids when they are taken out in public: 55 percent of parents say that kids use their tablets while traveling; 41 percent use them in restaurants.

Finally, Nielsen observes that most of children’s tablet use is about solitary entertainment: only 15 percent of kids use them for communicating with friends and family. That could spell an opportunity for someone.（source:techcrunch）

4）Gamevil earns $27.4M in smartphone revenue for all of 2011

Kim-Mai Cutler

Korean mobile gaming developer Gamevil said it earned $27.4 million in smartphone revenue for all of last year, nearly three-quarters of its total take.

Overall, the company brought in 42.6 billion Korean won ($37.5 million), up 39 percent from the year before. Net income was 16.1 billion Korean won ($14.2 million). For the fourth quarter, the company saw net income of 5.8 billion Korean won ($5.1 million) on 16.5 billion Korean won ($14.5 million), up 65 percent from the year earlier.

Gamevil said its growth came from diversifying both onto smartphones and outside of its home market of South Korea. The company said international sales more than doubled from the previous year. Gamevil also had a number of hits from Air Penguin, which was developed by an independent studio, to its core franchises of Zenonia and Baseball Superstars.

The company said it expects to see a 58 percent jump in sales for this year with 65 billion Korean won ($57.3 million) through the release of 40 titles this year.

Gamevil’s shares are up 5.1 percent today to 72,700 Korean won ($64.07), giving the company a market capitalization of $355 million. The company’s stock has had a strong run over all of last year with a one-year return of 188%.（source:insidemobileapps）

5）LucasArts veterans launch multiplayer platform Suddenly Social for iOS

by Keith Andrew

With a focus on multiplayer backend infrastructure, Suddenly Social is the new social gaming platform launched by former LucasArts men Randy Farmer, Chip Morningstar, Noah Falstein and Gary Winnick.

The tool – which looks to take charge of server management, deployment, operations, and scaling – enjoyed a limited launch in 2011, but now the platform is available to all, with its creators looking to make life a little easier for socially minded studios.

Socially speaking

“Developers are looking for ways to innovate while keeping development costs to a minimum,” said CEO Farmer.

“Chip and I have been working on this problem for the last 30 years and now we have a platform that is in the sweet spot for social/mobile game developers as well as the emerging mobile gambling market.”

Having already been deployed in an unnamed Facebook release – which, the company claims, boasts more than 1 million daily active users – Suddenly Social’s platform includes additional social tools, such as a cross-game, cross-device and geolocation-based messaging service.

Multiplayer might

To demonstrate its prowess, Suddenly Social has developed a number of games itself.

Bad Pets, for instance, is an eight player real-time rock, paper, scissors games, while Dice Club makes use of virtual currency.

“I continue to be impressed at the new and exciting ways developers want to use our platform, and we look forward to building long term mutually profitable relationships,” concluded Farmer.

More info on Suddenly Social can be found on the platform’s website.

The firm is also taking bookings for GDC, which kicks off on March 5 in San Francisco.（source:pocketgamer）

6）Ngmoco’s Cousins: Tablets more like consoles than smartphones

by Staff

As part of a new Gamasutra feature on whether tablets will leapfrog consoles in game graphics, quality and appeal, the outspoken head of Ngmoco’s new Stockholm, Sweden-based studio, Ben Cousins, offers his take on what will be crucial in creating a tablet game.

“Tablet games need to be more involving, like console games… they need to serve customers who are using the device for longer periods of time than smartphones… they need to be adapted to their bigger screens, like console games… and they need to be more entertaining for longer, evening play periods, like console games,” says Cousins (pictured with his team in a photo taken late last year).

He and his team are working on an unannounced title for Ngmoco, a publisher of mobile games.

“Unlike with a smartphone, based on the usage patterns we’ve seen from consumers, it’s completely conceivable to have a fully immersive experience on a tablet akin to an Uncharted or a Skyrim,” Cousins says.

It would be a mistake, however, to completely copy console games onto tablets, he warns. Developers need to take advantage of tablets’ continuous connectivity, their unique touchscreen-based control systems, their integrated features like push notifications, the freemium business model, and the “ultra-convenience” of being able to get software at the app stores.

He doesn’t see any of the current game consoles competing with the app stores in terms of their wide variety of freemium content and their ease of use of downloading and installing games.

The full feature, which contains more thoughts from Cousins as well as quotes from Nvidia on its upcoming technology and Unity on its game engine, is live now on Gamasutra.  （source:gamasutra）

7）Norway the most lucrative App Store in terms of average price per download

by Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman

Analytics outfit App Annie has thrown together another batch of app market insights, wrapping up stats regarding worldwide paid downloads rates, IAP monetisation rates and a comparison

between iPad and iPhone into an easy-on-the-eye infographic.

Titled The Rise of the Planet of the Apps, the report shows that worldwide, Norway emerges as the most lucrative country in terms of revenue per download, earning 37c on average, followed

by Australia and the US with 32c and 22c respectively.

In China, the average price per download is a mere 4c.

Small world

China and Japan represent the areas boasting the highest download growth rates, the former growing by 293 percent in terms of downloads and 187 in terms of revenue during 2011.

In Japan meanwhile growth rate of downloads hit 98 percent, while revenues grew by 88 percent.

“These markets are becoming increasingly important for international app publishers – notably apps such as Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja already have huge audiences in these regions,” noted the App Annie blog post.

“Look for international app publishers to continue to raise their game in their understanding of localisation, Asian tastes for UI and local marketing channels.”

Tapping Japan

Another significant finding was that while the number one app in the US manages to generate more than 10 times the revenue of China top grossing app in the domestic market, a Japan #1 earns 90 percent compared to the US.

As App Annie points out this is for “a country that has 1/6 the smartphone population.”

“What’s significant is that you need only acquire a fraction of the users in Japan to earn the same revenue as in the US.”

Of course, the difference is that a #1 hit in the US is typically a global hit, while Japanese are much less successful in other countries.

IAPs or bust

Apps including IAPs are monetising at more than double the rate of those apps without.

“By Dec 2011, apps with IAP were monetising 2.2X more than apps without IAP,” noted App Annie.

“If you have a great product, you’ll raise your revenue ceilings with a freemium rather than premium model.

“We’ve seen leading publishers like EA, Glu, and Gameloft place bets on freemium in the past year with considerable revenue gains.”

Catch up Google

The final batch of stats pertains to the rise of the iPad, which has seen download rates rise by 200 percent compared to 70 percent on the iPhone.

Also the iPad has come to represent a 30 percent slice of overall iOS revenue, with iPhone and iPod touch representing the other 70 percent.

“The significant revenue share validates Apple’s continued efforts in iPad innovation and marketing, which would soon manifest in the rumored upcoming release of iPad 3,” commented App Annie.

“This should also be of significant interest to Google, who have yet to establish their own consumer market for tablets.”（source:pocketgamer）