1）德国社交及手机游戏开发商Wooga日前宣布旗下益智游戏《Diamond Dash》在iOS平台下载量达3000万次，每日新增10万新用户；有68%活跃用户是通过Facebook Connect访问游戏。

diamond dash Graph(from Wooga)

该公司创始人及首席执行官Jens Begemann通过博文指出，移动平台是游戏行业目前最大的推动力，公司在过去一年中向该领域投入了一半的游戏设计师、工程师和美术人员以开发新游戏。

Wooga还表示将在11月1日开始启用新logo，以便提升公司游戏在应用商店中的辨识度，Wooga目前有一半手机游戏开发人员正制作Android版本的《Diamond Dash》、iOS版本的《Monster World》以及其他iOS游戏。

据AppData数据显示，《Diamond Dash》目前位居iPhone应用营收榜单第48名。

2）Flurry最新报告显示，最具粘性的手机应用并非游戏，银行客户端或社交网络，而是那些能够持续传递相同价值的简单应用，例如天气、目录、体育和新闻应用，它们更能持续吸引用户重复访问。

Flurry追踪了一系列热门应用在90天中的留存率和使用率，所有用户一周内使用这些热门应用超过17亿次。

loyalty by app category(from Flurry)

天气应用留存率最高，有73%用户在安装30天后仍会开启这些应用，63%用户安装60天后仍会访问，55%用户在安装90天后仍会访问。有趣的是，虽然天气应用用户留存率最高，但它们却并非使用频率最高的应用，用户平均每周仅访问3.7次。

使用率最高的是在线播放音乐应用，通信应用以及社交游戏，但仅有通信应用在初次安装一个月后仍能保留半数用户。62%用户在安装30天后仍会开启通信应用，但仅有47%社交游戏玩家和39%音乐粉丝仍会在一个月后访问相关应用。

Flurry将这些应用划分为四种类型：密集型和忠诚度较高的应用（游戏邦注：如新闻、通信应用等），“价值短暂”、仅在有限时间集中使用的应用（如约会服务和社交游戏），流失率较高、使用频率低的应用（个性化、娱乐应用）以及价值高，流失率低，但使用频率低的应用（旅行及导航应用、单人模式游戏）。

average user retention(from Flurry)

Flurry曾在2009年执行相同的调查，并发现在过去三年中应用90天的平均留存率均有所提升，从原先的25%提升至35%，但总体使用率已经下降。在2009年，用户平均每周访问应用6.7次，而2012年却仅为3.7次。

Flurry建议留存率较高应用的开发者采用订阅和广告盈利模式，而针对流失率较高应用则需考虑采用一次性下载付费模式，使用率较高的应用（无论留存率如何）则可采用IAP付费模式。

3）据insidemobileapps报道，Adobe最近数据显示移动搜索广告转化率明显提升，但iOS平台转化率几乎是Android平台的两倍。

Adobe发现，若以Android转化率为基准线，针对美国iOS用户的移动搜索广告转化率为181%，英国和德国用户则是193%。转化率最高的是财经、旅行和零售类广告。

conversion rate(from Adobe)

有趣的是，虽然iOS拥有更高的点击率和转化率，但其总体CPC费用却比Android低18%，这意味着在iOS平台投放搜索广告将可比在Android平台收获2倍的投资回报率。

Adobe预计到2012年第四季度，每5个付费搜索点击量就有1个来自智能手机或平板电脑平台。

4）据Techcrunch报道，谷歌最近针对33名美国平板电脑用户的调查报告显示，多数用户将平板电脑视为个人使用物品，主要用来玩游戏和查年邮件，许多人在床上使用平板电脑，还有不少人在烹饪时使用iPad和Nexus 7平板电脑。

tablet-usage-location-google-research(from google)

60%以上受访者曾一边看电视一边使用平板电脑，还有40%受访者一边吃喝一边用平板电脑，27%用户在下厨时使用平板电脑。这些受访者表示他们使用平板电脑来加强看电视的体验，例如“查找与节目相关的信息”，还有不少受访者在平板电脑上查收邮件，或者做其他事情时开着电视作为背景音。

google_research_tablet_usage(from google)

谷歌调查还发现有58%用户会在移动设备上搜索查找商品信息，但多数人仍会在台式或笔记本电脑上执行交易。调查人员发现，用户常因在平板电脑登录帐号问题或难以完成付费流程而转换到其他设备继续执行操作。

google_tablet_research_locations(from google)

5）据insidemobileapps报道，Facebook日前发布的一篇开发者博文指出，Buffalo Studios游戏《Bing Blitz》在移动平台有80%收益来自通过Facebook Connect登录的用户，这类用户在游戏中的投入比其他用户多三倍，游戏时长也比后者多2倍左右。

facebook-mobile-connect(from insidemobileapps)

Buffalo公司副总裁Brooke Olson指出，深度绑定Facebook功能是一个留存长期玩家的有效方法，Facebook支持玩家使用多种设备或在不同平台与好友体验游戏。另外《Bingo Blitz》也为通过Facebook进入游戏的玩家提供了同步奖励、货币和积分，以及12个免费积分等好处，这一措施促使50%以上的手机游戏玩家通过Facebook认证而登录游戏。

据AppData显示，《Bingo Blitz》目前位居iPad应用营收榜单第64名，Android应用营收榜单第39名。

6）据gamezebo报道，Gearbox Forums有一名用户最近发现《Borderland 2》数字战略指南中出现了一则广告，其内容暗示该游戏将在10月份推出针对iPhone和iPad设备的版本，这款iOS游戏中将出现4个可玩角色，

Borderlands Legends(from gamezebo)

每个角色都有自己的一套技能，游戏中还将植入掩护机制以及多种武器和随机任务。（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）Diamond Dash reaches 30 million downloads, 68 percent of users connect the app to Facebook

Scott Reyburn

Social and mobile game developer Wooga today announced that its puzzler Diamond Dash on iOS has reached 30 million downloads and a constant growth rate of about 100,000 new users per day.

The Berlin-based company also says 68 percent of active users log in to the game via Facebook Connect.Wooga logo

Wooga founder and CEO Jens Begemann said in the blog post that “mobile is the gaming industry’s biggest driver at the moment.” He adds that over the past year, Wooga has invested half of its game designers, engineers and artists to work on new mobile titles. The game studio has also trained eight of its Flash developers in iOS development, with five more studios receiving training by year’s end. All employees will be provided with either an iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S III in hopes to get the entire company to focus more on mobile.Wooga Facebook Connect graphWooga also revealed a new logo that will go into affect on Nov. 1 in an effort to improve legibility and recognition of Wooga’s games in the app stores.

The half of Wooga’s work force that’s focusing on mobile games is working on upcoming titles like Diamond Dash on Android, Monster World on iOS and another unannounced iOS title.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, the free Diamond Dash app is ranked No. 48 in the top grossing apps category on iPhone.（source：insidemobileapps）

2）Flurry: Utilities, news, weather and sports are the most engaging app categories

Kathleen De Vere

The most engaging apps aren’t games, banking clients or even social networks reports Flurry — they’re simple apps that deliver the same value time and time again. The mobile monetization provider’s latest study shows the most engaging apps are actually utilities falling under the categories of Weather, Reference, Sports and News. Apps in those categories keep the majority of their users coming back regularly, even after three months.

Flurry put together its report by tracking the 90 day retention rates of a series popular apps, comparing their retention rates to how frequently they were used. Altogether, consumers used the apps Flurry tracked more than 1.7 billion times a week.

According to Flurry Weather Apps showed the best retention, with 73 percent of users still opening an app 30 days after installing it, 63 percent opening it 60 days after installing it, and 55 percent continuing to use it after 90 days. Interestingly, although weather apps showed the best retention, they weren’t the most frequently used apps, averaging 3.7 user sessions a week.

The most frequently used apps were streaming music apps, communication apps and social games, but only communication apps retained half their users a month after the initial install. Flurry found 62 percent of users were still opening a communication app after 30 days, but only 47 percent of social game players and 39 percent of music fans were still engaged with their apps after a month.

Flurry used its research to divide app categories into four broad groups: intensive and loyal use apps (news, communication apps), “burst-value” apps that were used intensively, but for finite periods (dating services, social games), infrequently used apps with high churn (personalization, entertainment apps) and infrequently used apps that provide high value and low churn (travel and navigation apps, single player games).

Flurry’s study is a repeat of one the company conducted in 2009. The company found that while the average 90 day retention rate has improved over the past three years, rising from 25 percent to 35 percent, the overall frequency of app usage declined. In 2009, the average app logged 6.7 sessions a week, compared to 3.7 in 2012.

Overall, Flurry recommends that developers working in categories with strong retention explore subscription and advertising based monetization models, while considering consider one-time download fees to monetize apps that fall into categories with higher churn rates. The company found that in-app purchases were an effective monetization strategy for frequently used apps regardless of retention rates.（source：insidemobileapps）

3）Adobe: iOS users almost twice as likely to convert through mobile search ads as Android users

Kathleen De Vere

As mobile search traffic increases, mobile search ads are showing dramatically improved conversion rates, but the increases aren’t evenly split between device OS, reports Adobe. According to the company’s Q3 2012 digital advertising update, the iOS conversion rate is nearly double that of Android.

Using Android rates as the baseline, Adobe found U.S.-based iOS users demonstrated an 181 percent conversion rate on mobile search ads. European iOS users were even more likely to convert than their Android owning counterparts, with U.K. and German users showing a 193 percent conversion rate on iOS compared to Android. The categories of ad that showed the best conversion rates were finance, travel and retail.

Interestingly, although iOS had much higher click-through and conversion rates Adobe also found the overall cost-per-click rate was 18 percent lower on iOS. According to Adobe, the combination of these factors means placing a mobile search ad on iOS will generate twice the ROI as placing it on Android.

The news is interesting for marketers, given the fact that Adobe predicts one in five paid search clicks will originate from a smartphone or tablet during Q4 2012.（source：insidemobileapps）

4）Google’s Research Shows Tablets Are For Games And Email, Mostly Used On Couch & In Bed

Frederic Lardinois

Google just published a new research paper that delves into the details of how tablet owners use their devices. Using diaries, in-home interviews and contextual inquiry observations, the company’s researchers observed how 33 U.S. tablet users interacted with their devices. Some of the results are pretty straightforward (tablets are primarily used for personal purposes and to play games and check email), while others were a bit more surprising. Just as many participants used their tablets in their beds as on their couches, for example, and a surprisingly large number of tablet owners use their iPads and Nexus 7s while cooking.

The one area that is probably the most interesting in this paper is Google’s look at what the study participants did while they where using their tablets. Watching TV, unsurprisingly, came in first with over 60% of the participants doing so, followed by eating and drinking (about 40%) and – somewhat surprisingly – cooking (27%). The participants told Google that they were using their tablets to enhance their TV experience “by extending that activity, through for example, looking up related information about the program that they were watching.” Looking at its diary study, though, the researchers also found that many of the participants just used TV as background noise while checking their email and doing other things completely unrelated to watching TV.

Shopping: Research On The Tablet, Purchase On The Desktop

Google, of course, has been pretty interested in getting tablet users to shop on their devices. This study, however, found that while the majority of participants did some product research on their phones (58%), many still decided to make the actual purchase on their laptops or desktops. Shopping-related activities, the researchers found, have “a higher percentage of transitions from or to other devices (30%) or the real world (17%), than many other activities.” The reasons for this, the participants told the researchers, ranged from not being signed in to their accounts on shopping sites to how difficult it is to enter payment information on tablets.

Because of this, the Googlers behind this research note, “it is important to provide a seamless experience across all of the user’s devices, so that activities started on one of their devices can easily be continued on another.”（source：techcrunch）

5）80 percent of Bingo Blitz’s mobile revenue comes from Facebook-connected players

Scott Reyburn

Facebook today published a developer spotlight blog post about Buffalo Studios’ Bing Blitz, stating that 80 percent of the game’s mobile revenue comes from Facebook-connected users who spend three times more and play twice as much as other users.Bingo Blitz logo

“One of the keys to sustaining long-term players has been to integrate Facebook deeply within our game on all platforms,” read a statement from Brooke Olson, Buffalo Games vice president, studio operations. “Facebook allows us to offer a connected game experience to players who use multiple devices or want to play with friends on different platforms. On mobile specifically, Facebook-connected players are more engaged and spend more, which leads to longevity with the game.”

Bingo Blitz also makes it easy for mobile users to connect their Facebook account. Users who connect to Facebook receive extra benefits including rewards, coin and credit syncing, ability to play with friends and 12 free credits. This has resulted in more than 50 percent of mobile players logging in with their Facebook credentials.

Our traffic tracking service AppData shows Bingo Blitz at the No. 64 spot in the top grossing iPad apps category on iOS and the No. 39 spot in the top grossing apps category on Android.

Facebook integration features coming soon to Bingo Blitz allows players to invite friends on any device. In addition, any user who’s playing on Bingo Blitz on a desktop through Facebook could switch to and continue playing the game on a mobile device.（source：insidemobileapps）

6）Borderlands Legends for iOS revealed

By Dant Rambo

I hope you’re ready to return to the land of Pandora, because Borderlands Legends is on its way to your iDevice. It’s not entirely clear what kind of game it will be, but hey! More Borderlands is always a good thing.

The game’s existence was first discovered by Gearbox Forums user Ownzilla, who spotted a somewhat vague advertisement for it in the digital strategy guide of Borderlands 2. The ad (shown below) states that the four playable characters from the first Borderlands will be making a comeback, each with their own set of abilities. There will also be a cover system, meaning this is likely to be some sort of — surprise, surprise — action game. Unless it’s a really intense chess sim, I suppose.

Additionally, there will be “thousands of different weapons,” randomized missions, and a “Fight for your life” mode, ostensibly related to the mode of the same name in Borderlands 1 and 2.

We won’t have to wait too long for more information, as the ad also states (in massive red letters, no less!) that the game will launch sometime this October.（source：gamezebo）