1）Fiksu最近报告显示，iOS平台忠实用户获取成本在7月份持续上升，而应用下载量则降至今年4月份以来的最低点。

index-loyal-user(from Fiksu)

7月份iOS忠实用户（至少开启应用三次的用户）获取成本同比上月增长7%，达到1.54美元，而2011年7月份这一数据则是1.2美元，同比上年增长28.3%。

Fiksu认为这一现象的原因在于大型公司展开营销战略的“行业宏观趋势”，例如日本手机社交游戏巨头GREE和DeNA在此领域砸下的大笔营销成本。据称DeNA第一季度营销及推广投入达6860万美元，而GREE则宣称公司愿通过Chartboost广告平台的Kiosk计划支付3.5美元的每次安装成本。

downloads(from Fiksu)

iOS应用下载量连续3个月走低，同比上月下载5.6%。美国前200名免费iPhone应用7月份日均下载量为437万次，低于6月份的463万次。虽然下载量低于6月份，但仍比去年同期的425万次日均下载量增长2.8%。

2）据venturebeat报道，亚马逊Appstore自2011年Kindle Fire平板电脑发布以来，开发者数量翻倍增长，应用数量已增长了3倍左右。

apps(from venturebeat)

《Style Me Girl》发行商Frenzoo表示，他们的应用在亚马逊平台收益比在其他平台多50%左右，TinyCo也曾指出其亚马逊应用收益高于其他任何平台。

亚马逊将于9月6日发布新款Kindle Fire，预计Kindle Fire在2012年产量将达2000万部。

3）据mobile-ent报道，谷歌上个月在网页版Google Play中添加了一项个性化推荐功能“Recommended for You”，该功能日前已入驻Google Play应用版本。

Google-Play-Recommended-for-you(from ausdroid.net)

该功能会根据用户的Google+好友所喜欢的内容，用户所在位置以及“类似用户”的喜好等因素，推荐用户可能喜欢的应用及游戏，如果用户并不喜欢谷歌所推荐的内容，可以点击“不感兴趣”图标以便系统进一步了解用户喜好。

4）据9to5Mac报道，有名开发者最近收到苹果的拒绝通知，该通知指出其提交的产品图标与“热销列表/记事应用Clear”颇为雷同，并建议开发者更改其图标设计。

rejection notice(from venturebeat)

苹果应用审核政策指出，开发者“使用受到保护的第三方材料——商标、版权、商业机密以及其他专属内容时，需在提交审核申请时同时出具相关证明文件。”

观察者认为，此举表明苹果已加大对山寨应用的打击力度，开发者的图标设计不可与该平台其他产品，尤其是热销榜单中的应用相似。

5）据gamasutra报道，Rovio总经理Oskar Burman日前通过Twitter发贴宣布，DICE游戏《战地3》制作人Patrick Liu最近加入Rovio并担任创意总监一职。

patrick_liu(from edge-online.com)

Liu有5年多时间在DICE担任高级制作人，此前曾是Starbreeze Studios联合制作人，参与开发了《The Darkness》以及《超世纪战警之暗黑雅典娜》等游戏。

6）据insidemobileapps报道，Red Robot Labs日前宣布将向Android和iOS平台推出基于现实世界3D地理定位游戏《Life is Magic》，支持玩家通过社交玩法与他人竞争，并成为世界上最有影响力的巫师。

life is magic(from theappside.com)

7）Big Fish Games日前宣布向Android平板电脑推出Unlimited云游戏服务，其中支持设备包括三星Galaxy Tab、三星Galaxy Tab Plus和摩托罗拉Xoom。

该服务将以应用形式入驻Google Play（游戏邦注：Big Fish曾在去年底向App Store发布Unlimited服务，但苹果却并未明确解释其中原因就移除了该应用），预计还将以网页版本的形式登陆iOS平台。

Big Fish Unlimited(from hippestphone.com)

Big Fish并未公布该服务具体用户数据，但表示有100多个国家/地区玩家注册了这项服务。

Big Fish Unlimited目前仅在美国开放服务，推出每月7.99美元的包月休闲游戏以及广告赞助的限量版免费游戏。

8）据Social Casino Intelligence报道，在接连流失数名高管之后，Zynga最近聘请拥有在线博彩行业背景的Maytal Ginzurg Olsha担任公司首席运营官。

zynga_poker(from theverge.com)

Maytal Ginzurg Olsha此前曾任真钱赌博网站888.com高级副总裁，Zynga上个月已宣布公司正投入开发一些真钱博彩产品，计划待到2013年上半年这一市场真正受到规范和开放的时候发布产品。

9）据《日经新闻》报道，最近有些日本玩家通过Yahoo Japan Auctions等拍卖网站出售从《Dragon Quest X》等游戏中赢取的虚拟货币。如下图，该游戏中的30万个金币目前在Yahoo Japan售价为3.1万日元左右。

yahoo-japan-dragon-quest-x(from serkantoto)

这种真钱交易行为意味着，玩家在游戏中可以通过添加他人为好友，相互交换在平台或游戏之外的网站买卖的道具。值得注意的是，这一现象与赌博颇有渊源，因为玩家在《Dragon Quest X》中需先付费，然后玩骰子由运气决定是否将赢取金子（游戏中的虚拟货币，可用于购买装备或其他道具）。

虽然该游戏是Square Enix发布于Wii平台的在线游戏，并未入驻Mobage或GREE平台，但Square Enix本身也运营社交游戏，此举或将导致游戏行业再次遭遇政府整治。（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）Fiksu: user acquisition costs continue to rise as iOS downloads fall

Kathleen De Vere

User acquisition costs on iOS continued to rise in July, even though download volume on the platform dipped to the lowest levels seen since April, reports Fiksu.

According to the Boston-based user acquisition company’s latest figures, the cost to acquire a loyal user — defined as someone will will open an app at least three times — rose by seven percent month-over-month in July to $1.54. By comparison, the cost to acquire a loyal user was $1.20 in July 2011, up 28.3 percent year-over-year.

Fiksu attributed the rising costs to what it called an “industry-wide macro trend” of major brands initiating mobile marketing strategies. It’s also important to note that Japanese mobile-social gaming giants GREE and DeNA have been advertising aggressively in the mobile gaming space. We’ve heard from several sources both companies are willing to pay more than average market rates for installs — note that DeNA reported spending $68.6 million on marketing and promotions in its Q1 earnings report, and GREE announced it was willing to pay up to $3.50 per install through its Chartboost advertising Kiosk program.

While user acquisition costs in July rose for the third month in a row, total download volume fell by 5.6 percent month-over-month. According to Fiksu, the top 200 free iPhone apps in the U.S. generated an average 4.37 million downloads a day in July, down from June’s figure of 4.63 million daily downloads.

Fiksu did not attribute the drop in download volume to any specific cause however, as volumes experienced a similar downturn over the summer months of 2011 as well. While total download volumes are down month-over-month, they are still up 2.8 percent year-over-year from July 2011’s average of 4.25 million downloads a day.（source:insidemobileapps）

2）Amazon’s app store sees massive growth (but it’s no Google Play)

John Koetsier

Amazon’s app store for Android has grown massively in popularity since the Kindle Fire was released in November 2011, doubling the number of developers who publish to the store and tripling the number of apps. Plus, Amazon says, hundreds of millions of apps have now been downloaded from the store.

Of course, that’s barely a blip on the Google’s radar, since the official Android market, Google Play, has seen more than 20 billion downloads on 600,000 apps.

Still, Amazon is growing, and growing specifically in terms of monetization, which some publishers say is much better than Google Play and the Apple App Store.

“Our apps monetize 50 percent better than they do on other platforms we’re on, in turn, helping us scale our business quickly,” said Simon Newstead, the CEO & Co-Founder of Frenzoo.

Frenzoo publishes Style Me Girl, which is available for both Android and iOS. TinyCo, which makes games such as Tiny Monsters, Tiny Village, and Tiny Pets (sensing a pattern here?) also said that monetization on Amazon was better than “any other platform.”

One of the reasons, of course, is Amazon’s in-app purchasing, which on Android in general pulls in more coin than app purchases, and Amazon’s vast customer base, which can purchase via the company’s patented 1-Click methodology. Another may very well be the fact that Amazon cherry-picks which apps appear on its platform, ensuring that the best apps are represented.

Amazon is hyping its app store in anticipation of the new Kindle Fire, which should be unveiled September 6. Old units are already sold out, and the new model looks to be a massive improvement on the current Fire, which sold almost five million tablets  last Christmas season. Speculation has been that Amazon may produce up to 20 million units of the Kindle Fire in 2012.

Google cannot be happy that Amazon is, in some sense, hijacking Android with an alternative app store. And if the new Kindle Fire hits tens of millions of sales, it will be the de facto Android tablet.（source:venturebeat）

3）Personalised recommendations on Google Play

by Mike Shaw

Google’s app store tailors app suggestions to the user.

Google added a Recommended for You section to their web-based Play Store last month, and has now added the feature to the Play Store app.

Featured lists and editor’s picks have been available for some time, but this is the first time personalised recommendations have appeared on the mobile Play Store.

The recommendations are found in the Apps tab of the Google Play Store, and feature a mix of apps and games that you may like.

Factors like which apps your Google+ friends like, your location and what “similar users” like are all used to generate the recommendations, however if Google gets it wrong you can click  an “uninterested” icon and teach the system to understand you a little better.（source:mobile-ent）

4）Clone Wars 2: Apple’s gunning for copycat apps

John Koetsier

Apple is cracking down on app store copycats and being more proactive about rejecting apps that may violate other companies’ trademarks, according to one developer who saw a colleague’s rejection notice.

9to5Mac first noticed that Benjamin Mayo, a university student who built the Bingo Machine app for iOS, received a note from another developer whose app was rejected. The rejection notice, pictured below, states that this particular submitted app’s icon was too similar to the “chart-topping lists/to-do app Clear” and suggests that “it would be appropriate” for the developer to modify the icon.

Apple’s app store review guidelines specifically say that “use of protected third party material — trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, otherwise proprietary content — requires a documented rights check which must be provided upon request.”

Developers might legitimately ask, of course, how with 650,000 apps in the app store any design might not look similar to at least one other app’s icon, but Apple is probably mostly concerned with the “chart-topping” apps, which developers have more incentive to copy.（source:venturebeat）

5）Battlefield 3 producer joins Angry Birds studio

By Mike Rose

Patrick Liu, previously DICE’s producer on Battlefield 3, has left the company to join Angry Birds studio Rovio as its creative director.

Liu was senior producer at DICE for over five years, and prior to that he held an associate producer role at Starbreeze Studios, where he worked on The Darkness and The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.

Oskar Burman, general manager at Rovio, tweeted the news earlier today, while Liu noted that he is “looking forward to new and exciting challenges.” （source:gamasutra）

6）Red Robot Labs announces its upcoming location-based fantasy game, Life Is Magic — The Android and iOS platforms game intertwines 3D real-world locations with rapidly evolving social gameplay as players compete to become the most influential wizard in the world.（source:insidemobileapps） 

7）Previously pulled by Apple, Big Fish launches its cloud-based Unlimited service on Google Play

by Jon Jordan

Having initially launched for PC browsers in July, Big Fish Games is now bringing its Unlimited streaming service to Android tablets.

As the company’s VP of cloud gaming, Will O’Brien, remarked, “We’re very excited to support the recently launched, exceptional Nexus 7 tablet. Instant cloud gaming is a perfect fit for this fast-­performing device.”

Other supported devices include Samsung Galaxy Tab, Samsung Galaxy Tab Plus and Motorola Xoom.

Competitive advantage

The service will be made available via an app on Google Play.

Big Fish launched an early version of Unlimited on the App Store in late 2011 but Apple pulled the app for reasons that have never been made entirely clear.

Big Fish Unlimited will be made available for iOS devices at some point too, although given the previous issue – likely to do with subscription – this may be via browser rather than app.

Going global

More generally, despite the problems suffered by OnLive since Big Fish Unlimited launched, the company says it’s been happy with its take up.

No numbers have been detailed, but Big Fish says that consumers from all states of the US are using it, while players from over 100 countries have registered their interest.

Big Fish Unlimited is currently only available in the US and offers a premium catalog of casual games for $7.99 per month, or an ad-supported limited selection for free.（source: pocketgamer）

8）Zynga brings in online gambling exec as COO

By Eric Caoili

After losing a number of high-level executives recently, Zynga has brought in a new chief operating officer with plenty of experience in the online gambling space — a market the social studio has been pushing into.

Maytal Ginzburg Olsha previously served as the SVP of corporate and regulated markets for real-money gambling site 888.com, and will soon take on the role of COO of new markets at Zynga, according to Social Casino Intelligence.

Zynga said last month that it already has real-money gambling products in development, and that it intends to release them in markets where they are regulated and open (the United States is currently not one of those markets) starting in the first half of 2013.

Olsha’s appointment comes at a point when a number of key employees are leaving Zynga, including former COO John Schappert, CityVille GM Alan Patmore, Mafia Wars 2 GM Erik Bethke, CCO Mike Verdu, and vice presidents Bill Mooney and Brian Birtwistle. （source:gamasutra）

9）The Nikkei: Real-Money Trading Is Becoming A Problem On Dragon Quest X [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

If you thought that Japan’s online gaming industry solved the real-money trading (RMT) problem, think again: Japanese business daily The Nikkei yesterday ran a story on the phenomenon, pointing out that players sell off virtual items from hit game Dragon Quest X for real money.

Dragon Quest X is distributed by Square Enix as an online game on the Wii and doesn’t connect with Mobage or GREE – but this is surely not good news for social game providers in Japan either.

I tried to explain what real-money trading of virtual items means in detail here. Simply put, it means that one player befriends another player inside a game just for the exchange of virtual items (mostly rare cards) that were previously sold or auctioned off outside the platform or game.

In the case of Dragon Quest, players aren’t trading cards but “gold”, the game’s virtual currency. The Nikkei says that some users earn gold to exchange it for real money on auction sites like Yahoo Japan Auctions.

Real-money trading has always been connected with gambling, and to make things worse, players can earn virtual gold in Dragon Quest X by playing a dice game: users pay in advance, play the game and win gold if they are lucky or lose gold if they are not (that gold can be used in the game to purchase armor and other items).

In other words, Square Enix makes it possible to gamble inside an online game, which is pretty bold, given what happened in Japan’s gaming market in the last few weeks. (Square Enix is active in the social gaming business, too.)

And needless to say, the Nikkei report triggered talk that the industry might get regulated again (I personally speculated that the government might pull out the hammer on RMT in particular in May).

In fact, checking Yahoo Japan leads to plenty of Dragon Quest X-related real-money trading auctions at the moment, for example this one in which 300,000 gold coins are currently standing at 31,000 Yen (“buy it now” price: 45,000 Yen)（source:serkantoto）