1）Informa Telecoms & Media最新报告显示，Android市场份额持续上升，2012年中国市场的Android设备占所有Android设备销量的三分之一。

目前中国有三分之二手机销量属于Android设备，中国已成为全球最大的Android市场，并且是发展最快的智能手机市场，年增长率达到85%。

China-Android(from extremetech.com)

美国是第二大Android市场，其Android设备销量在全球市场中占比11%，2013年美国Android手机销量将至少占据半数比例。

与此同时，尽管iPhone 5登陆中国市场首周销量就达到200万台，但iPhone在中国市场份额仍然仅为5%。

报告指出，2012年全球智能手机总销量为7.86亿部，比2011年增长45%左右。

2）Forrester Research最新报告指出，美国网络普及率稳定保持在79%左右（与2011年数据相同），也就是说有79%的美国成人用户每月都会上网。但值得注意的是，2011年每天都上网的美国成人用户比例为78%，2012年的这一比例则上升至84%（游戏邦注：Forrester报告结果取自美国、加拿大近6万名用户的数据）。

Forrester指出，智能手机与平板电脑的普及是美国日活跃网民比例提升的一个重要原因，约有半数美国网民使用智能手机，有三分之二网民甚至持有多部连网设备。平板电脑普及率自2011年以来翻倍增长，目前比例达19%。

有36%的成人网民使用智能手机上网，有75%在商店中使用智能手机上网，67%在客厅用手机上网，在卧室的比例则是65%，在汽车上的比例为74%，在旅行途中的比例为68%，在户外的比例为74%。

benchmark_2012_graphic(from Forrester)

报告还指出，有43%受用户通过电视机连网，有42%用户通过游戏主机连网，而使用网络电视的用户仅占比19%，使用机顶盒上网（例如Roku和苹果TV）的用户比例仅为14%。

18-23岁群体在社交网站上的活跃程度高于其他用户，有70%的年轻用户每天都访问社交网络，85%至少每月访问一次Faceboook。而24-32岁群体的平板电脑用户比例最高（25%），其智能手机用户比例则是72%；33-46岁群体网购比例更高（在过去三个月中平均网购消费额为561美元，而同一时期全体美国购物者的平均消费额则是449美元）。

至于47-67岁群体以及68岁以上的老年群体，他们更常在家使用台式电脑，其智能手机和平板电脑用户比例较小，但平板电脑普及率也已经从2011年翻倍增长至14%。

3）移动广告平台Millennial Media最新报告指出，三星在Millenial平台第三季度所有Android设备广告印象中占比46%，超过去年同期时的23%。

Samsung_Galaxy_S3(from techradar.com)

HTC位居第二，占比30%。报告还指出，iPad mini广告印象增长最快，每天增幅达28%，但原版iPad广告印象也在持续增长，其总量是iPad mini的35倍。

4）据insidesocialgames报道，手机社交游戏开发商Storm8近日宣布将推出新款社交博彩游戏《Bingo!》。该游戏将由Storm8旗下的Shark Party工作室（专注于社交博彩游戏）发布，该工作室由前Facebook成员成立于2009年。

App ranking(from AppData)

Storm8在11月份宣布旗下游戏在移动平台下载量突破4亿次，其首款博彩游戏是《Slots》，自今年春季发布以来一直稳居iTunes应用营收榜单前100名。

5）在本周DAU增长最快的Facebook游戏榜单上，Wooga的《Diamond Dash》位居榜首，新增30万DAU，增幅达9%。

Top gainers this week-DAU(from AppData)

Social Point的《Dragon City》排名第二，新增30万DAU，增幅为7%；Miniclip的《8 Ball Pool》新增22万DAU，增幅为25%；《Megapolis》新增20万DAU，增幅为167%；Zynga的《Texas HoldEm Poker》新增20万DAU，增幅为3%。

6）据gamesindustry international报道，Infernum创始人Andreas Weidenhaupt在最近采访中表示，股东和投资者对免费游戏市场期望过高，导致这一领域的公司常因不切实际的目标而面临压力。

他指出，由于今年初Zynga市值达到了一个异常的天文数字，股东和投资者在短时间内对这一领域的期望急剧飙升。目前1位数的增长率已经远远无法满足他们的期望，而如果你制定了两位数的增长计划，就将面临无法兑现承诺的风险，从而给整个业务运营模式带来危害。

Brick-Force(from games.softpedia.com)

这种不切实际的目标会影响公司的人力规划，产品计划以及授权事项；导致整个市场充斥着大量为了实现增长率而模仿他人作品的游戏。Infernum称免费游戏公司应该奉行健康的可持续发展战略，不要冒进跟风。

Infernum最近获得了Koch Media的投资，其首款游戏《Brick Force》目前玩家超过150万，公司团队规模为32人，计划在明年扩展至50人以上。

7）据TheNextWeb报道，曾有媒体在9月份指出苹果App store应用审核指南中的第2.25条款显示，苹果可能移除一些植入其他开发者销售或推广产品的应用。

app store agreement(from pocketgamer)

最近苹果App Store移除了应用检索平台AppSchopper（游戏邦注：该应用主要用途是追踪应用售价情况，以便用户跟进减价和免费信息），原因是后者违反了第2.25条款，但目前其他类似的推广应用并未被苹果移除。

在9月份时，苹果并未这一新条款进行解释，也并没有因为2.25条款的问题而移除应用，只是阻止开发者更新此类应用。而AppShopper本次的遭遇似乎表明苹果已经开始采取强硬措施。（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）China accounts for a third of 2012 Android device sales

by Zen Terrelonge

Two-thirds of mobile phones sold in the region are powered by Google’s OS.

New research from Informa Telecoms & Media says that the reach of Android continues to surge, particularly in China, which accounts for a third of all Google OS-powered devices sold in 2012.

In fact, the little green robot has such a stronghold in the region that two-thirds of mobile phones sold in the country run on Android, making it the largest market in the world. The region is also noted as the fastest-growing smartphone market, experiencing an 85 per cent year-on-year growth rate.

The US bagged an 11 per cent share of global sales, which makes the country the second-largest Android market, while at least half of all mobile phones sold in the country throughout 2013 will use the platform. The firm also notes that the share could grow even further if Apple doesn’t improve its devices and ‘ageing iOS’, with iPhone sales slipping from 35.5m in 2012 to 34m in 2013.

Comparatively, Apple’s iPhone only accounts for five per cent of sales in China, though two million units of iPhone 5 were sold during its debut weekend.

Malik Saadi, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, said: “Despite the economic downturn, the global smartphone market is enjoying healthy growth and consumers are actually spending more to acquire more technologically-advanced devices.

“It is estimated that around 786 million smartphone devices were sold in 2012 (including the devices powered by non-certified variants of Android that are proliferating in China), which is 45% more than the total number of smartphones sold in 2011.

“Looking forward, Android is expected to continue gaining market share globally and, by 2015, one in every two handsets sold worldwide will be powered by it. However, according to Informa Telecoms & Media, the market share of this platform could potentially peak – or even decline – after 2016 owing to a more aggressive penetration of the alternative OSs, most notably Windows Phone.”（source：mobile-ent）

2）Forrester: 84% Of U.S. Adults Now Use The Web Daily, 50% Own Smartphones, Tablet Ownership Doubled To 19% In 2012

Frederic Lardinois

Forrester Research just published its annual “State of Consumers and Technology” report. As usual, it’s chock-full of interesting statistics about how U.S. consumers use the Internet, but the most interesting statistic is probably that the overall online penetration rate in the U.S. has stabilized at 79 percent (the same number Forrester found in 2011). That’s the percentage of U.S. adults that go online at least monthly. What has changed, however, is how many adults go online at least daily: In 2011, that was 78 percent of U.S. adults, and in 2012, Forrester reports that 84 percent now go online at least once per day.

One of the reasons for this is, of course, the growing smartphone and tablet penetration. Forrester found that about half of U.S. online adults now own a smartphone and two-thirds even own multiple connected devices. Tablet adoption doubled since 2011 and is now at 19 percent.

One trend that the Forrester report, which includes survey data from nearly 60,000 consumers in the U.S. and Canada, also notes is that 43 percent of consumers now connect to the web with their TVs. Forrester, just like similar surveys, found that most of these users rely on their game consoles to do so (42 percent), while connected TVs (19 percent) and Internet-connected set-top boxes like the Roku or Apple TV are only being used by 14 percent.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that Forrester’s research also found that there are still distinct usage patterns among different generations. The 18-to-23-year-old crowd, for example, is far more active on social networks than anybody else. About 70 percent of these Gen Zers, Forrester says, “visit social networking sites daily” and 85 percent visit Facebook at least once a month. Gen Y (24-32) is more likely to own a tablet (about 25 percent) and smartphone (72 percent) and Gen Xers (33-46) are most likely to spend their money by shopping online (an average of $561 in the past three months compared to an average of $449 for all U.S. shoppers).

Once you get to the Boomers (47-67) and the so-called “Golden Generation” (68+), technology adoption obviously lags quite a bit. Older online adults, for example, are more likely to use desktop computers at home and are less likely to own tablets and smartphones. Still, even among this group, tablet adoption has doubled to 14 percent since 2011.（source：techcrunch）

3）Millennial: Samsung’s Android Market Share Grew From 23% To 46% In One Year

Darrell Etherington

A new look back at mobile trends for 2012 from Millennial Media shows some significant gains for Samsung in particular, which has usurped the beleaguered HTC in terms of overall share of Android devices accessing apps using Millennial’s mobile ad platform. Samsung held 23 percent of impressions overall among Android devices in Q3 2011, but 46 percent in Q3 2012.

HTC was the leading player at the same time last year, but now it trails Samsung by 30 percentage points and sits in second place. The growth of Samsung reflects the success of its Galaxy S III, and also the Galaxy Note, both of which were strong performers in the smartphone market in 2012. The Galaxy S III sold over 30 million devices through November, covering five months on the market.

Other highlights from Millennial’s latest report, which include a year-end wrap-up of overall trends, show that the iPad mini has been a fast grower, rising 28 percent per day. Original

iPad growth has not been dented by its rise, however, according to Millennial, suggesting cannibalization effects might not be as extreme as some predicted: original iPad impressions continue to grow at 35 times the volume of the iPad mini hits, the company says.

What else changed in 2012 in mobile? Millennial says that customers spend more time on their devices, and more advertising dollars are shifting to mobile campaigns, with some verticals experiencing especially high growth. The automotive industry grew the most on Millennial’s network, with a 318 percent spike vs. 2011 in spending. Travel, sports and education all saw over 200 percent increases in mobile ad budgets, too.

The trends for 2012 seem to suggest that there’s a lot to look forward to in 2013, especially for Samsung and its growing dominance of the Android platform. But can competitors like HTC rally and make a comeback in the new year? Samsung is likely to introduce strong successors to all of its current top-performers, including a Galaxy S IV and Galaxy Note III, but we’ll have to wait and see if an upset is in the cards.（source：techcrunch）

4）Storm8 expanding its social mobile casino lineup with Bingo!

Mike Thompson

Mobile social game developer Storm8 is about to launch Bingo!, its newest social casino game under the its Shark Party brand.

Bingo! is being launched under Storm8′s Shark Party brand (which is focused on social casino games). The company was started in 2009 by former employees of Facebook and bootstrapped by its founders, but the company proved immediately profitable. Co-founder and CEO Perry Tam tells us, “The advantage to [being bootstrapped] is that we can focus 100 percent of our efforts on building our business – and that is to be the best in any game or category we pursue. Being self-funded puts us in control of our destiny.”

Back in November, Storm8 announced it had surpassed over 400 million downloads on mobile devices. The developer’s first casino game was Slots, which has consistently been listed in the top 100 grossing apps on iTunes  since it launched this Spring.

This new social casino title comes just a month after Storm8 launched its match-3 title Jewel Mania for mobile devices. That game’s been performing even better than Slots, as it’s still within the top 100 charts for both Top grossing and top free titles on both iPhone and iPad.

Currently, Storm8 has its own label, as well as three different game brands: Shark Party, TeamLava and FireMocha. Each of these brands cater to different types of gamers, with the first two focusing on different types of casual players and FireMocha targeting more mid-core or harcore players. Tam tells us each of these brands’ games are designed to be free-to-play, supported by in-app purchases. The Storm8 brand is used for the company’s more popular massively multiplayer online titles like World War and iMobsters.

Even though Storm8 is expanding its catalog of social mobile casino games, the company isn’t interested in pursuing real-money gaming. Tam tells us, “Storm8’s business model remains focused on growing our mobile social games; we don’t have plans to expand into real-money gaming at this time.”

Bingo! is set to launch on iOS tomorrow, Dec. 20. Tam tells us there are plans for an Android version of the game; the mobile builds of the title will allow Facebook connectivity, but an open web or desktop version isn’t in development right now.（source：insidesocialgames）

5）Diamond Dash takes over this week’s list of fastest-growing Facebook games by DAU

Mike Thompson

Wooga’s Diamond Dash proved to be the fastest-growing Facebook game by daily active users this week, bringing in 300,000 DAU for a 9 percent gain.

Social Point’s Dragon City also took in 300,000 DAU, but it came in at No. 2 with a 7 percent gain. Miniclip’s 8 Ball Pool had a 25 percent gain of 220,000 DAU that let it snag the No. 3 spot. Megapolis continues this week’s surge and is up by 200,000 DAU for a 167 percent increase, claiming the No. 4 position. Zynga’s Texas HoldEm Poker fills out the top five games on the list with 200,000 DAU for a 3 percent gain.（source：insidesocialgames）

6）Infernum: investors in free-to-play have unrealistic expectations

By Matt Martin

Zynga’s “abnormal market valuation” has put pressure on market, says founder

InfernumShareholders and investors in the free-to-play market are expecting too much growth too quickly, according to Infernum founder Andreas Weidenhaupt.

Weidenhaupt partly blames the abnormally high valuation of Zynga earlier in the year for putting pressure on free-to-play companies to hit unrealistic targets.

“Since Zynga reached an almost abnormal market valuation investors and shareholders tend to expect much too high growth rates in much too short a time,” he told GamesIndustry International.

“By now, one-digit growth rates are not even regarded as good enough. If you plan double-digit growth rates you run the risk of threatening your whole business model, if the presumed growth rate is simply not happening.

“This affects the company manpower planning as well as product schedules and licensing. The market is dominated by the propensity to copy each other in order to be able to communicate these expected growth rates. We have to grow sustainable, healthy and not at any cost.”

Yesterday Koch Media confirmed it had acquired a stake in developer Infernum as it looks to increase its footprint in free-to-play. Infernum’s first release, Brick Force, has over 1.5 million players.

The company employs 32 people but expects to grow to over 50 during the new year. Weidenhaupt said that his company is ignoring the stats bandied around the free-to-play market, and is instead focusing on the product.

“I have to ask myself, for whom essentially are numbers of 300 million registered users communicated in the end? If you see this from a logical standpoint, you could stop any marketing activities immediately because you have already reached the available audience many times over already.

“An online marketing manager has to be able to market a game on a quality level instead of only buying traffic.”（source：gamesindustry）

7）Clause for concern: AppShopper booted from the App Store

by Keith Andrew

It’s months since clause 2.25 – an addition to the App Store’s App Review Guidelines uncovered by PocketGamer.biz – hit the headlines, yet it appears Apple is only now taking action against certain releases it believes violate the rule.

One such is app discovery platform AppShopper, which its creators – who are also behind TouchArcade – claim has been booted from Apple’s marketplace for breaking clause 2.25, which outlaws apps that display “apps other than your own for purchase or promotion.”

Acceleration

According to a report by TheNextWeb, Apple cited the clause as its reason for removing AppShopper – an app that tracks app prices to enable consumers to take advantage of price drops or promo deals.

Similar promo apps, however, currently remain unaffected, though many will now be monitoring their respective inboxes to watch out for similar action.

Back in September, Apple remained silent when the clause was uncovered, though speculation suggested it was a move designed to enable the giant to retain control of both the App Store, and the major forces that impact on its rankings.

At the time, however, it was claimed Apple wasn’t removing apps that fell foul of clause 2.25, but rather it was simply preventing developers from updating them. The removal of AppShopper appears to signify an shift in Apple’s approach.

Have you had an app update rejected or had it removed from the store entirely for violating clause 2.25?

Mail us at keith[dot]andrew@pocketgamer.co.uk and we’ll be in touch.（source：pocketgamer）