1）Strategy Analytics最近报告指出，今年第三季度全球智能手机用户已达10.38亿，远超去年同期时的7亿用户。

报告称移动行业历时19年才突破10亿智能手机用户这一大关（游戏邦注：首款智能手机发布于1993年），但预计2015年这一数据将增达20亿。

1 billion Smartphones(from itweb.co.za)

2）据gigaom报道，谷歌在日前财报会议上宣布，公司移动业务（包括广告、应用程序和内容）收益已达80亿美元。

其首席执行官Larry Page表示多数移动收益来自广告，但拒绝透露具体数据及Google Play的应用/内容利润。

3）诺基亚最近财报显示，第三季度Lumia手机出货量已降至290万部，远低于上一季度时的400万部。该季度诺基亚净销售额下滑至72亿欧元（约94亿美元），同比上年下降近20%。

Lumia 800（from fonearena.com)

与此同时，诺基亚亏损为5.76亿欧元（7.55亿美元），去年同期则亏损7100万欧元（9800万美元）。

诺基亚设备服务部门（主要负责销售移动设备）销售额也从去年第三季度的53.9亿欧元（74.5亿美元）降至35.6亿欧元（46.7亿美元），移动设备出货量从原先的1.064亿部下滑至7700万部。

4）Eidos总裁Ian Livingstone在最近采访中表达了他对现代宽带网络速度的不满，声称“电信运营商在许多方面制约了游戏开发商的发展，导致我们在本该考虑如何制作好游戏之时，还需要操心宽带网络的问题。”

ian-livingstone(from gameguru.in)

在他看来，无论是开发单人游戏，还是大型MMO游戏，宽带速度都已经成为游戏开发业务的一个关键瓶颈。尽管全球下载速度已经在增长，但数字游戏的文件大小增速更为明显，许多数字游戏都需要很长的下载时间，因此家庭主机设备至今仍无法采用数字运营模式。

此外，当前的网速也造成了网络延迟这一长期性问题，如果不提升网速，开发者就得绞尽脑汁去寻找解决其游戏的网络延迟问题。

5）应用追踪公司Distimo最近宣布推出付费订阅服务AppIQ，支持开发者使用该服务查看自己的Android、iOS应用下载量及收益。

尽管AppIQ所提供的下载量及收益数据是Distimo的统计结果，并非苹果或谷歌平台的实际数据，但Distimo根据美国iTunes App Store前1000款付费应用的分析数据指出，54%的应用误差幅度小于3%。，95%的应用误差幅度小于10%。这表明AppIQ报告显示的数据未必100%正确，但已经足够开发者了解其应用的市场表现情况。

AppIQ service(from insidemobileapps)

AppIQ早期测试结果显示，今年9月份，Supercell旗下游戏《Clash of Clans》在美国App Store每日收益约10万3763美元，其9月份在美国App Store总收益约195万美元。如果从Supercell所宣布的《Hay Day》及《Clash of Clans》日收益超过50万美元这一情况来看，AppIQ所显示的数据已经颇为可信。

从AppIQ下载 量追踪情况来看，《Clash of Clans》9月份在美国App Store日常下载量介于1万至2.2万次，整月下载量达44万4476次；9月3日下载量为2万2431次，位居免费iPhone游戏榜单第39名，免 费iPad游戏第24名，这一结果颇为接近AppData的数据。

除此之外，AppIQ还针对iTunes App Store、Google Play、亚马逊Appstore、苹果Mac Store、黑莓App World、诺基亚Ovi Store、三星乐园、Windows Phone 7 Marketplace推出应用排名追踪服务。

AppIQ的普通订阅服务是每月99欧元，而提供更详细下载及收益分布情况的高级服务每月费用高达2899美元。

6） 据venturebeat报道，迪士尼旗下游戏《小鳄鱼爱洗澡》最近推出了12集动画片《Swampy’s Underground Adventures》，该动画片将通过Disney.com及YouTube进行播放。从11月份开始，该公司将通过迪士尼频道播放该动画片。

Swampy’s underground adventures(from gamerchica.com)

7）据gamasutra报道，手机社交游戏公司GREE日前发布开源工具Lightweight SWF（简称LWF），支持开发者使用Flash内容制作基于Unity和HTML5的智能手机应用。

该工具的动画引擎便于开发者在Unity和HTML5中渲染从Flash转换而来的动画数据，以缩短Flash开发者的学习时间，使他们无需编程就能创造动画和用户界面。

GREE曾使用LWF制作《Animal Days》和《Alien Famil》等手机游戏，并表示希望以此帮助全球游戏开发者减少智能手机应用的开发障碍。（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）There are more than one billion smartphone users on the planet

by Mike Shaw

Figure increased by more than 300m in one year.

It seems like every week a new stat comes out that highlights mobile’s unstoppable global momentum.

Last week we learnt that the world has six billion mobile phone subscriptions, while this week a study by Strategy Analytics says that the total number of smartphone users worldwide has surpassed one billion – 1.038 billion, to be exact.

The report says the milestone figure was reached in Q3 of 2012, which is a huge leap from the figure of 0.7 at the end of Q3 2011.

Although it 19 years to hit one billion smartphone users (the first was launched in 1993), Strategy Analytics believes the number of smartphone owners will reach two billion by 2015 – that’s some serious growth, but not particularly surprising when you consider emerging markets like India, China and Africa.（source：mobile-ent）

2）Google has $8 billion in mobile revenue: is that good or bad?

By Jeff John Roberts

Google disclosed that it’s on pace to pull in an impressive $8 billion from the mobile environment — but its refusal to provide details about the nature of that revenue means it’s still not possible to tell whether the company can thrive without desktop computers.

Google Wallet hands-on: cool but needs work thumbnail

Investors are watching Google closely to see if the company can adapt to a world where more and more searches take place on smartphones and in apps. Today, the company rolled out an impressive sounding figure but provided few details about what it means.

On an afternoon earnings call, Google announced it had a run rate of $8 billion from its mobile business, consisting of revenue from ads, apps and content.

CEO Larry Page, still hoarse from a voice problem that silenced him for months, stated that the vast majority of that mobile revenue came from ads and that mobile is a “significant portion” compared to desktop ads. He declined, however, to provide specific figures or to disclose the margins Google is making on apps and content in the Play store.

The CEO likewise deflected a question about whether desktop ad revenue had “flat-lined,” and declined to say whether it was a matter of quarters or years before mobile revenue caught up.

He did, however, say that for now few people were using Google Chrome browser on their mobile device — implying that future broader adoption will trigger a new rush of ad revenue and e-commerce.

What all this means is that those trying to read Google’s mobile tea leaves will have to wait to learn whether the company really has adapted its search money machine for the smartphone era. The $8 billion figure could thus either represent more big time growth at Google or, alternately, the start of stagnation.（source：gigaom）

3）Lumia shipments slip below 3 million as sales continue to slide at Nokia

by Keith Andrew

With the launch of Nokia’s (NYSE: NOK) refreshed Lumia line-up a matter of weeks away, the Finnish firm posted yet another disappointing set of quarterly results owing to falling interest in its existing smartphones.

Shipments of existing Lumia handsets slipped to 2.9 million in Q3 2012 – down from a promising 4 million in the previous quarter.

As a result, net sales slipped to €7.2 billion (around $9.4 billion), down almost 20 percent year on year.

No shocks

The somewhat sticky quarter hasn’t come as a surprise, however.

News that existing Windows Phone 7 handsets wouldn’t be upgradable to Windows Phone 8 effectively put a blocker on Lumia’s momentum earlier this year.

The knock-on effect, of course, is that big things will be expected from the WP8-equipped Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 come launch, with losses (on an IFRS basis) for the quarter coming in at €576 million ($755 million) – up from a €71 million ($98 million) loss during the same period in 2011.

Nokia’s devices & services division – responsible for its mobile output – saw sales slop to €3.56 billion ($4.67 billlion) from €5.39 billion ($7.45 billion) in Q3 2011, with mobile shipments as a whole dropping to 77 million from 106.4 million year on year.（source：pocketgamer）

4）Why broadband limits are holding developers back

By Tom Curtis

“[Telecom operators] are kind of holding us back in many respects… We have to worry about broadband when we should be thinking about making better games.”

- Eidos President Ian Livingstone expresses his frustrations with modern broadband speeds.

Whether you’re developing a single player game or a large scale MMO, Livingstone noted that broadband speeds are becoming an increasingly problematic bottleneck for game development.

Download speeds might be increasing worldwide, but file sizes for digital games are growing even faster. It takes quite a long time to download most digital games, and Livingstone believes home consoles haven’t been able to embrace a digital-only model for that very reason.

And of course there’s the ever-present problem of online latency. Until broadband speeds improve, developers will have to go out of their way to compensate for lag in their online games.

“The message is: build bigger pipes and we’ll try not to fill them,” Livngstone said. “ISPs, please do not rest on your laurels.” （source：gamasutra）

5）Distimo’s new AppIQ service reveals downloads and revenues for any app

Kathleen De Vere

App tracking company Distimo is looking to pull back the veil of secrecy that surrounds app downloads and revenues with its new analytics product AppIQ.

The Dutch firm has already become well known for exposing closely guarded secrets of the mobile industry through its detailed monthly reports, and now the company taking its research one step further with AppIQ, a premium subscription-based service that allows its users to see how many downloads and how much money almost any Android or iOS app is making.

Although the download and revenue numbers provided through AppIQ are Distimo’s estimates and not actual figures from Apple or Google, based on an analysis of the top 1000 paid apps in the U.S. iTunes App Store, Distimo says that 54 percent of apps will show results with a margin of error below three percent. 95 percent of app reports will have a margin of error below 10 percent. This means that even though AppIQ’s reports won’t be 100 percent foolproof, they’re more than accurate enough for its users to know exactly how well their competition is doing.

We were given early beta access to a limited version of AppIQ earlier this week. According to the service, during September, Supercell’s Clash of the Clans was earning as much as $103,763 a day in the U.S. iTunes App Store. AppIQ also revealed the game’s revenues trended upwards after the release of the version 2.44 update on Sept. 19.

Altogether, by Distimo’s estimates, Clash of the Clans earned $1.95 million in the U.S. iTunes App Store in September. Given the fact the company reported the combined earnings from Hay Day and Clash of the Clans were in excess of $500,000 a day earlier this month, the figures returned by AppIQ seem to be highly plausible.

Checking downloads, according to AppIQ, Clash of the Clans was receiving anywhere from 10,000 to 22,000 thousand downloads a day in the U.S. iTunes App Store during September, and received a total of 444,476 downloads for the entire month. On Sept. 3 the game received 22,431 downloads, good enough to be the No. 39 ranked free iPhone game and No. 24 free iPad game — results that matched the ones returned by our own app tracking service AppData.

In addition to download and revenue estimates for iOS and Android titles, AppIQ also provides comprehensive chart rankings for the iTunes App Store (iPhone and iPad) Google Play, the Amazon Appstore, the Apple Mac Store, BlackBerry App World, Nokia’s Ovi Store, Samsung Apps and Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.

Developers interested in signing up for AppIQ can learn more here. Service plans start at €99 per month for the Bronze plan, but those interested in seeing detailed download and revenue breakdowns for apps other than their own will need to pay for AppIQ’s Platinum plans, which start at a much pricier €2,899 a month.（source：insidemobileapps）

6）Disney’s mobile game star Swampy gets his own animated series

Jeffrey Grubb

The shower-obsessed alligator from Disney’s Where’s My Water? is moving from video games to an animated series.

The germaphobic Swampy stars in 12 episodes of Swampy’s Underground Adventures that will appear weekly on Disney.com and YouTube. Starting in November, Disney will air the cartoons on its popular Disney Channel.

“Swampy’s rise to stardom began on the App Store, and now we’re extending his story to online video and linear television,” said senior vice president of Disney Interactive

Entertainment Mark L. Walker. “With Swampy’s Underground Adventures, we’re able to offer fans of Where’s My Water? a fun new look at the humor and personality behind Swampy and his friends.”

Where’s My Water? is a physics-based puzzle game where players must direct water through an obstacle-filled sewer so that Swampy can take a shower. He loves to be clean. It’s cute and clever with a wide appeal.

It’s also very popular. Since debuting in Apple’s App Store, iPhone players have made it the most-downloaded game in 90 different countries. Where’s My Water? is also available on Android devices.（source：venturebeat）

7）Gree releases open source tool for bringing Flash animation to Unity, HTML5

By Eric Caoili

Mobile social game company Gree has rolled out Lightweight SWF (LWF), a new open-source tool for creating Unity- and HTML5-based smartphone apps with Flash content.

The tool’s animation engine allows developers to render animation data converted from Flash content playable in Unity and HTML5. It’s designed to shorten the learning curve for developers with a Flash background, enabling them to create animations and user interfaces without any engineering.

Gree previously used LWF to create mobile titles like Animal Days and Alien Family, and says it’s making the tool open-source because it wants to lower obstacles to smartphone app development for game makers around the world. It intends to expand LWF with future releases, too. （source：gamasutra）