1）据新浪科技报道，工信部（MIIT）最新报告指出，在过去三个月中，智能手机在所有中国手机出货量中占比56.9%。

在过去六个月中，中国上市手机新品为2099款，其中智能手机占822款，在这些智能手机中基于Android操作系统的移动设备达801种（占比超过97%）。

Nikko Partners曾预测到2012年底，中国活跃智能手机数量将超过2亿部。

iphone-china(from asdlabs.com)

2）Needham & Company最新数量显示，中国已成为全球第一大智能手机市场，在上个季度智能手机出货量为3310万部，增幅达164%；而美国同一时期智能手机销量则是2500万部。

分析师Charlie Wolfattributes认为富有竞争力的价格是智能手机在中国获得快速发展的主要原因。Android在中国智能手机中占比69.5%，苹果占比17.3%（去年占比9.9%），诺基亚则占比11.2%。

值得注意的是，苹果尚未与中国移动合作就已收获1500万以上的iPhone中国移动用户，这些用户主要通过越狱iPhone使用中国移动服务。

3）据mobile-ent报道，上线三年的黑莓App World下载量已突破30亿次；该应用商店历时786天实现10亿次下载量，其后又历时210天实现20亿次下载量，最后经历了176天突破30亿次下载量。

BB app world(from berryeg.com)

该应用商店现在每天下载量为250万次，吸引了2.8万以上应用发行商及开发商，目前共有9万款应用。

iOS App Store下载量已突破300亿次，Android应用商店也即将迎头赶上，而微软Windows Marketplace暂未公开下载量总数，目前仅知其平台已有10万款应用。

4）据MCV报道，暴雪英国手机游戏工作室Leeds团队首款手机游戏并非《使命召唤》而是《Pitfall》改制版本。

pitfall-mobile game(from kotaku.com)

原先有报道称，暴雪首款手机游戏是《使命召唤》，但该公司代表Martyn Brown在最近采访中表示，公司首款手机游戏是问世已达30年的《Pitfall》，他们在今年初已投入开发该游戏。

5）Piper Faffray分析师Gene Munster最近预测，苹果将在今年发布的iPad Mini面世首个季度销量将达400万至600万部。据其所测，iPad Mini售价为299美元，采用16 GB内存，其价位介于199美元8GB的iPod Touch和399美元16 GB的iPad 2之间。

ipad mini(from detectapple.com)

Munster认为尽管iPad Mini可能蚕食当前iPad设备10%的市场份额，但也会在发售首个季度侵蚀30%的Android平板电脑市场份额。他预计苹果将于今年末同时发布iPad Mini和iPhone 5。

6）据AllThingsD报道，近日有知情者透露亚马逊将于今年第三季度发布新款Kindle Fire，该设备将比原版Kindle Fire更轻薄，并采用内置摄像头以及分辨率为1280 X 800的屏幕（游戏邦注：原版Kindle Fire采用7英寸屏幕，分辨率为1024 X 600，屏幕纵横比为1.71）。

amazon-kindle-fire-2(from techshout.com)

如果Kindle Fire采用7英寸1280 X 800的屏幕，那么它将显示更出众的图像效果，其屏幕纵横比将达到1.6。

谷歌Nexus 7也采用1280 X 800的屏幕及内置摄像头，比目前的Kindle Fire更轻薄，该设备将于7月中旬以200美元售价面世，极可能直接与Kindle Fire 2抢夺市场份额，这两者的另一竞争对手则是可能于第四季度发布的iPad Mini。

7）据techcrunch报道，加拿大温哥华开发商Eruptive Games最近融资100万美元，并即将发布一款僵尸题材游戏《Citizen Grim》。其投资者包括Kevin Colleran（Facebook十位首批成员之一），《吉他英雄》开发者Kai Huang、俄罗斯社交游戏开发商Plarium（将任该公司顾问）。

citizen-grim(from techcrunch)

Eruptive Games与Kixeye和Kabam一样将瞄准硬核玩家群体，即将上线的《Citizen Grim》是一款RPG街机游戏，将于今年9月或10月份登陆移动平台，该公司之前的游戏《Mercenaries of War》最高峰时的玩家为100万，月活跃用户为50万。（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）Smartphones overtake feature phones in China

by Mike Shaw

Android responsible for boost.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has declared that smartphones shipments are exceeding those of feature phones.

In a report from China’s Sina Tech (via Tech In Asia) China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) revealed that, over the last three months, smartphones have accounted for 56.9 percent of the phones shipped to retailers in the country.

This figure is going to cause concern for phone manufacturers as feature phones continue to die out. Of the 2,099 new phone models that hit the Chinese market in the last six months, only 822 were smartphones. Of those smartphones, 801 (more than 97 percent) were Android-based.

It has been predicted by Nikko Partners that the number of active smartphones in China will pass 200 million by the end of 2012.（source:mobile-ent）

2）China beats out U.S. to be largest smartphone market, Apple share grows

Meghan Kelly

China is officially the world’s largest smartphone market. According to data released by Needham & Company, the country has jumped 164 percent to 33.1 million smartphones sold in the past quarter.

The United States sold 25 million units in the same time period, falling behind China. As AppleInsider notes, Needham & Company analyst Charlie Wolf attributes this to China’s competitive smartphone prices. When smartphones first came on the Chinese market, they were priced to compete with feature phones. Having a lower price tag out of the box may have encouraged more people to buy initially.

Market researcher Niko Partners suggests the number of mobile gamers in China will top at 192 million this year, surpassing the number of PC players.

Android squarely beat Apple in China, with 69.5 percent of the market, while Apple sits at 17.3 percent. That still marks significant growth for Apple, which at this time last year only had 9.9 percent of the market. Nokia brings up the rear at 11.2 percent. It’s impressive for Apple to hold the number two spot here, when it doesn’t have access to China’s number one mobile carrier, China Mobile. The operator has not yet adopted the iPhone, although its competitors China Unicom and China Telecom have.

Demand for the iPhone on China Mobile shows, however: The carrier already has over 15 million iPhone users. How? It seems customers of China Mobile are jail-breaking their iPhones specifically to run them on China Mobile.

Apple is reportedly attempting to boost its presence in China with a number of new retail stores as well. Two of these stores were approved by the government in early June, to be located in Chengdu and Shenzhen. Apple’s retail stores worldwide made the company $4.4 billion in the second quarter of 2012 alone, 38 percent more than the year-ago quarter.（source:venturebeat）

3）BlackBerry App World passes 3bn downloads

by Tim Green

RIM app store now offers over 90,000 apps.

BlackBerry App World is only just three years old, and passed the 2m download milestone at the start of the year.

More precisely it took 786 days to reach the one billion mark, 210 days to reach two billion, and only 176 days to reach the three billion number.

That represents pretty smart progress for a platform that’s supposed to be on its uppers.

The store is currently supporting 2.5 million downloads a day, and has over 28,000 vendors offering more than 90,000 applications now up for sale.

It’s all relative, of course. iOS has passed 30bn downloads, and Android is closing in on the same milestone. Meanwhile Windows Marketplace has not disclosed app totals, but is known to offer 100,000 products.

BlackBerry blogged: “While we’re very proud of the work that has gone into BlackBerry App World, we’re especially appreciative of the tens of thousands of developers that have and continue to create apps for the BlackBerry platform.”（source:mobile-ent）

4）Activision’s first UK mobile game is Pitfall

by Mike Shaw

Leeds studio will produce classic owned IP Pitfall, not Call of Duty.

The first game from Activision’s new Leeds, UK mobile studio is a revamp of classic title Pitfall, not Call of Duty, the firm has told Mobile Entertainment sister title, MCV.

It was earlier reported that Activision was working on a UK-made Call of Duty for smartphones, but this afternoon Activision’s Martyn Brown told MCV: “In setting up there has been a lot of interest given the publisher we are working with. In the third week of may we revealed we had the studio, and yes it is based in Leeds, and we have hired some key talent in the form of Mark Washbrook and Mark Lloyd [formerly of Rockstar Games].

“The first game we are making is in fact Pitfall, which is 30 years old this year.”

Pitfall is a symbolic choice for the new UK studio – the 1982 original was Activision’s first major release, coded by co-founder David Page. Ports appeared on many 8-bit systems and Activision has remade the title a number of times for later formats.

Pitfall for smartphones is a fresh take, said Brown.

“We’ve been working on Pitfall since earlier in the year when we set up and it has been really good to revisit that and bring it to a modern audience.”（source:mobile-ent）

5）A holiday launch could see Apple sell 6 million $299 iPad Minis in 2012

by James Nouch

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes that Apple could sell as many as 6 million iPad Minis in one quarter, assuming the (as yet hypothetical) product benefited from a holiday launch date.

Munster expects Apple to launch the iPad Mini in 2012 with a $299 price tag and 16 gigabytes of storage. As such, it would sit neatly between the $199 8GB iPod Touch and the $399 16GB iPad 2 in Apple’s product line-up.

“We believe this implies that Apple could sell 4-6 million smaller iPads in the December quarter, assuming a holiday launch,” Munster explained in a note to investors.

Mini cannibal

Although he noted that such a launch would cannibalise 10 percent of existing iPad sales, Munster also expects it to snatch 30 percent of total Android tablet sales in the quarter it launches – a coup for Apple’s tablet market share.

“If the launch occurs in (the fourth quarter), we believe the smaller iPad would add about 1% to revenue and (earnings per share) in December,” Munster continued.

Munster expects Apple to unveil the iPad Mini and iPhone 5 at the same event later this year, and to also publicly announce a refresh to its existing Apple TV offering.（source:pocketgamer）

6）Kindle Fire 2 rumoured to boast 1280×800 display and ship in Q3 2012

by James Nouch

Amazon will launch a Kindle Fire successor in Q3 2012, and the device will feature an improved display resolution of 1280×800.

That’s according to AllThingsD’s sources, who have also said that the new device will also be slimmer and lighter than its predecessor, and feature a built-in camera.

The headline improvement is its display, though. The current Kindle Fire features a 7-inch 1024×600 screen, which is an aspect ratio of 1.71.

If the Kindle Fire 2 were equipped with a 7-inch 1280×800 display, it would not only result in noticeably sharper images, but it’s also a more widely used aspect ratio: 1.60.

Three-horse race?

Google’s Nexus 7 also boasts a 1280×800 display, built-in camera, and slimmer proportions than Amazon’s current Kindle Fire. And since Google is expected to start shipping its $200 tablet to consumers by mid-July, it seems certain that the Jelly Bean slate will beat the Fire 2 to market.

AllThingsD’s sources believe Amazon’s tablet refresh will launch late in Q3 2012, while China Times has claimed that the device will hit shelves by the end of August.

Furthermore, persistent rumours claim that Apple is planning to tackle the Fire and Nexus head-on, by launching a competitively priced iPad Mini in 2012.（source:pocketgamer）

7）Eruptive Games Takes $1M For Zombie Killing, Action-Adventure Social Games

Kim-Mai Cutler

Eruptive Games, a Vancouver-based developer that’s shortly set to launch a zombie-killing game called Citizen Grim, just picked up $1 million in funding. Investors include Kevin Colleran, who was one of Facebook’s first 10 employees, Guitar Hero creator Kai Huang and Nadeem Kassam of Zynik. A Russian social game developer called Plarium is also putting funding in and will act as an adviser. Mayfield Fund’s Tim Chang is also an adviser.

Like Kixeye and Kabam, Eruptive isn’t targeting casual gamers, but rather more hard-core players. These types of games may not attract the sheer number of users that Zynga games might, but they can monetize far better because they attract a more selective audience that is more willing to pay for items in games.

Their forthcoming title Citizen Grim is an RPG arcade game. The plot is about a medical experiment that went wrong in 1945 in the Nevada desert. In the game, the U.S. government had been working on a solution to help fix military personnel who had come back from World War II. They ended up creating a facility to host all of their experiments called GRIM.

The town around the facility grew to the point where it ended up being 20,000 people. In the story, something with GRIM’s experiments goes terribly wrong and all 20,000 citizens turn into something like zombies. They’re called “reapers” in the game.

“You’re one of the last survivors and you have to fight yourself out of the town,” said chief executive Julian Ing. “That’s what makes it super fun.”

The company’s working with an unnamed publisher to bring it out soon. Then it should come out on mobile devices in September or October. Eruptive’s previous title Mercenaries of War hit a peak of 1 million players and monthly actives of about 500,000.（source:techcrunch）