1）市场调研公司Forrester最近报告预测，2016年美国成人平板电脑用户将达1.125亿，其比例相当于美国人口的三分之一。

报告指出2010年至2016年美国平板电脑销量将达2.925亿部（游戏邦注：报告假设平均每名用户每隔两年更换一次平板电脑）。

苹果是美国平板电脑市场领头羊，所占份额达73%，而其他平板电脑所占份额均未超过6%。报告称价格是用户选择平板电脑的重要考虑因素，但并非唯一因素，这正是苹果、亚马逊以及Barnes & Noble能够取得成功的原因所在。而用户不买平板电脑的首要原因却是他们认为“自己不需要这种设备”。

欧洲主要7国的市场情况与此类似，预计2016年该地区平板电脑用户将达1.057亿，其中16岁及其以上年龄的用户将占30.4%。

2）据Apple Insider报道，摩根斯坦利分析师最近预计，苹果iPad产品2012年出货量将达5100万部（该设备在苹果2011财年销量为3240万部）。

但许多其他分析师认为，iPad产品在2012年出货量约6000万部左右，Deutsche Bank称受到新款iPad的推动，将有更多开发者涌向拥有3.15亿部设备销量的iOS平台，并由此为该平台引进更多用户。

RBS Cqpital Market分析师Mike Abramsky则认为2012年iPad出货量将达6200万。

3）Epic Games副总裁Mark Rein在最近的媒体采访中指出，他认为索尼和微软等掌机设备正面临被iOS平台赶超的危险。

他称掌机设备的出众之处就在于游戏画面的视觉效果，而如果掌机制造商不能保持这种优势，任由掌机设备与iOS产品缩小差距，那就很可能失去用户市场。

4）ngmoco瑞典工作室总经理Ben Cousins在GDC大会发言中指出，他认为尽管专属游戏掌机仍能在市场立足，但其所占份额极为有限。欧美零售游戏业务在2009年已发展至鼎盛时期，但现在的欧洲零售游戏已经陷入困境。

任天堂、动视、EA、育碧和科乐美曾是市值前5名的游戏公司，但现在前5名强者却是任天堂、动视、Zynga、GREE和Nexon，专注于免费在线及手机游戏市场的公司占据了三个席位。

他称移动设备的飞速发展是掌机陷入这一状况的主要原因，目前移动设备的图像视觉效果、运行性能等方面日渐趋近于掌机设备。他还举例称电视机普及大众时，电影院上座率随之下滑至其全盛时期的六分之一左右，电影内容供应商目前仍运营良好，而平台公司（即电影院）却几乎面临倒闭。这也正是值得游戏行业警醒的教训。

5）据games.com报道，EA及Playfish蒙特利尔工作室最近在加拿大测试新款iOS游戏《Trouble Makers》，目前仅有加拿大App Store用户可体验这一游戏。

从其下载页面可得知，玩家可在这款模拟游戏中搜集50种独特的怪物，并在放置多种“疯狂机器”的实验室中驯养这些怪物。游戏支持玩家装饰自己的实验室，做出一些基因突变的怪物以及邪恶的小工具。

6）Harris Interactive最新调查报告显示，尽管将近半数的美国手机用户一直在使用自己的移动设备，但多数用户并不使用那些更高级的功能。

仅5%的用户使用手机订电影票或飞机票，3%使用手机买衣服、电子产品或饮料，或者订购现场演出节目的门票。

40%用户并不使用手机扫描功能消费，有45%用户声称自己的设备没有这项功能。47%用户认为手机扫描功能挺好用，但也有38%认为这种功能让他们觉得不适。

39%用户认为通过手机应用购物并无不妥，但有47%用户自称还不适应这种消费方法。

其他调查结果包括：

年轻群体更喜欢尝试新功能；

男性用户更愿意尝试手机设备的高级功能；

已使用过手机扫描功能的用户更乐意执行这种操作，而未尝试该功能或者老式手机用户则不然。（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）One third of all US adults to own a tablet by 2016, claims Forrester

by James Nouch

Research firm Forrester has claimed it expects 112.5 million US adults to own a tablet by 2016, with the sector’s consumer base equalling more than a third of the country’s population of adults within the next few years.

According to the latest report published by the firm, US tablet sales will hit 292.5 million between 2010 and 2016, assuming the average user replaces their device once every two years.

Back to the present

Surveying the current lay of the tablet landscape, Forrester’s consumer surveys show a market dominated by Apple.

While iPad accounts for 73 percent of the market, no other brand of tablet is able to claim more than 6 percent.

According to the report’s author, senior analyst Sarah Rotman Epps, “Price is becoming a more important factor in tablet choice. But it’s not the only factor or even the primary one.

“It’s about the services — what you can do with the device, which is why Apple, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble have succeeded in the US where pure hardware plays have failed.”

Tablet fever

“We now expect 112.5 million US adults to own a tablet in 2016, which will equal 34.3 percent of US adults,” Rotman Epps explained.

“In Europe, the numbers are similarly impressive, with an expected 105.7 million tablet users, or 30.4 percent of consumers 16 and older, in the EU-7 by 2016.”

But Rotman Epps claims tablets are still seen as a luxury item, and even at a low price, not all consumers feel they can justify the purchase.

“Forrester’s data shows that the top reason consumers don’t buy tablets isn’t because of price or technology – it’s because they say ‘I don’t think I need it.’”（source:pocketgamer）

2）Analysts peg iPad shipments at a possible 60 million+ in 2012

by Keith Andrew

Analysts at some of the world’s biggest investment banks have claimed Apple’s iPad unveiling will ensure it continues to lead the tablet market in 2012, with shipment estimates hitting as high as 60 million for the year.

As summarised by Apple Insider, the lowest annual estimate for the tablet following Apple’s San Francisco splash is from Morgan Stanley, which believes 5 1 million units will be shipped in 2012 – a figure still up significantly on the 32.4 million Apple sold in FY2011.

Life begins at 60

Most of the estimates centre around the 60 million mark, with Deutsche Bank claiming such a target would now be “beatable” thanks to new iPad hardware.

“We expect this upgrade to attract even more developers to the iOS platform 315 million plus units shipped – whose new Apps – 200,000 and counting – will attract even more users to the platform,” said Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore.

RBS Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky believes a shipment figure of 62 million in 2012 is more likely, while Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty had claimed up to 90 million units could make it onto shop shelves if sales jump 2.3 times when the new iPad hits the shelves, just as they did post iPad 2′s launch.

Nonetheless, Huberty believes 51 million units in 2012 is a more realistic shipment number.（source:pocketgamer）

3）GDC 2012: Consoles in danger of being ousted by Apple, claims Epic’s Mark Rein

by Keith Andrew

Apple’s claim that iPad is the top choice for gamers has been followed by a warning by Epic’s Mark Rein that Microsoft and Sony risked being overtaken by iOS platforms.

According to the Epic VP, the studio is constantly encouraging home console manufacturers to push the specs of their new machines so they stay on the bleeding edge – a stance signified by the firm’s latest Unreal Engine 3 demo, Samaritan.

Push it real good

“This is why we did Samaritan and why we’re doing a really high-end demo in the room here,” Rein told CVG.

“We really are pushing these guys, because if they don’t, Apple will go right past them.”

Rein’s view is that developers want console manufacturers to stick to their strengths – i.e. serving up machines capable of lush visuals.

It’s a completely difference approach to the one Nintendo adopted with the Wii, but the only way Rein believes new systems from Microsoft and Sony can hope to fend off the iOS attack.

Unlimited power

“The only way they’re [consoles and tablets] going to go away is if they don’t stay true to what they are,” Rein added.

“The console gaming experience is about delivering something that’s way out past the bleeding edge and subsidising it through the software royalty model – just like Apple does with the phones. It’s not that much different.

“That’s the console gaming model, and if you don’t do that – if you don’t stretch just far enough, you don’t just have enough of a difference to make people want to take the leap with you…it all falls down.”

Epic’s forthcoming iOS release Infinity Blade Dungeons (see below) was one of the games showcased at Apple’s iPad unveiling, of course, with high quality visuals clearly a priority. However, Rein is confident console manufacturers will still have a role to play on this score.

“I think the console guys are going to blow us all away,” he concluded.

“There’s no end in sight for what we can do with unlimited technology. So we’re always going to be pushing and I’m sure we’ll be pushing for more than is possible to give.”（source:pocketgamer）

4）GDC 2012: The performance and convenience of mobile gaming is killing the console business says ngmoco’s Ben Cousins

by Jon Jordan

Everything in gaming is changing and mobile is the disruptive factor – that was the conclusion of ngmoco Sweden general manager Ben Cousins.

In GDC 2012 talk entitled ‘When the consoles die, what happens next?’, the ex-EA and Sony man painted a picture of the clash between what he called the Old World of Gaming and the New World of Gaming.

Comparing dedicated game consoles to the decline of sales for CD Walkman, horse-drawn carriages and main frame computers, he stressed that while consoles have a place in the market, they’re much, much smaller part of the market.

Decline and fail

“In the US and UK, the retail games business peaked in 2009. European retailer GAME is in trouble,” he said.

“THQ almost killed itself with a bet on kids games on console, while in Japan the market capitalisation of mobile platform companies such as GREE and DeNA is more than Japanese retail annual sales.”

Similarly, while the top 5 games companies by market cap used to be Nintendo, Activision, EA Ubisoft and Konami. Now it’s Nintendo, Activision, Zynga, GREE and Nexon. Three of those companies are focused on free-to-play online and mobile games.

Mobile killed the video game star

“Old world is large but shrinking fast,” Cousin warned.

As a comparison, he looked back to the decline of arcade business in the 2000s; killed off by the rise of consoles from companies such as Sony and Microsoft.

“Big companies were able to grow the gaming business, and hardware and chips got cheap enough for people to have gaming experiences in the home, with performance parity, he said. “Convenience matters.”

“I believe mobile is the reason for the state of console business now,” Cousins said.

“Mobile gaming will cut a slice through the games business.”

Mobile’s the way

One element for this was he pointed to increasing performance of mobile chips.

“We’re reaching graphically parity between mobile devices and consoles,” he explained.

“We’re creating a console gaming experience on the move and I believe that will pull people away from console gaming.”

So even as arcades still have bigger screens and better controls, and while consoles will always been more powerful than mobile, the relative performance and convenience of mobile will be key.

“Cinema was killed by TV. It was totally crushed,” Cousins argued , drawing on another industry comparison.

“US cinema attendance dropped to a sixth of its peak as TV became available.”

“What’s important though was the content companies did well, but the platform companies – cinemas – shut down. And that’s what game makers need to do now.” （source:pocketgamer）

5）Trouble Makers, Playfish’s next iOS game, is up to no good in Canada

by Joe Osborne

Of course, “Canadians” can play the game, too. EA and Playfish’s Montreal studio are poised to release their next big iPhone and iPad game, Trouble Makers. Live testing now in the Canadian App Store, Trouble Makers isn’t based on any existing Playfish property, which has largely been the studio’s approach to mobile games until now. This is 100 percent original.

Little is known about the game so far, what with only Canadian App Store account holders able to play it. What we do know from the game’s download page is that players can collect 50 unique monsters in a slick-looking, isometric simulation game and essentially herd them in their very own laboratory filled with various “maniacal machines.”

The game is free to play, and based on the screen shots featured on the Trouble Makers App Store page, players’ time in the game is governed by an energy system. (Though, we’re 97 percent sure energy and other in-game goods will be up for sale.) The goal of the game appears to be to decorate your very own mad scientist’s lab, complete with genetically-engineered monsters and loads of nefarious gadgets and gizmos.

In short, it certainly sounds like CityVille or other simulation games, but with a mischievous twist: It seems that players can pull pranks on their friends when they visit their labs. Of course, this is all speculation, but one thing is certain: With everything announced earlier for iPhone and iPad, EA is on mobile like a fly on–you can finish that yourself.（source:games）

6）Most Americans don’t use their smartphone’s smarts

by Zen Terrelonge

Functions such m-payments and ticket scanning get left by the wayside.

Smartphones can receive emails, buy goods, play games and more, but despite having nearly half of all US mobile owners in possession of one of the devices, most US users aren’t using the phone’s advanced functions,.

Harris Interactive says just five per cent have used their phone for entry to a film or an airline ticket, while just three per cent have paid for clothing, electronics or beverages on the device or used it for entry to a live show.

There is an increasing number of mobile payment solutions rolling out onto the market, and the poor figures for smart usage suggests there is a long way to go to accomplish mass adoption.

40 per cent haven’t scanned their mobile at all, while 45 per cent claim their device doesn’t have a scanning function.

Additionally, 47 per cent say they’re comfortable with mobile scanning for admissions, though 38 per cent aren’t comfortable with the platform.

This changes for using a mobile app to make purchases falling to 39 per cent claiming they would be comfortable, but rising to 47 per cent of users feeling uncomfortable.

Further results show:

* Youths are the most happy to try new tech throughout

* Men are more keen to try the platforms than women

* People that have scanned their device are happier to do so than those that haven’t and those operating on an older device.（source:mobile-ent）