1）据mobile-ent报道，迪士尼旗下有三款手机游戏日前跻身英国iPad付费应用榜单前三名。《Temple Run:Oz》（基于电影《魔镜仙踪》的衍生游戏）排名第一，《Toy Story:Smash It!》位列第二，《Wreck-It Ralph》排名第三。

Imangi Studios旗下的《Temple Run》最近势如破竹，《Temple Run 2》已打破《愤怒的小鸟》历史纪录，上线仅13天就创造5000万次下载量。

temple-run-oz(from slidetoplay)

2）据Verge报道，Rovio近日已放弃iOS原版《愤怒的小鸟》售价，支持用户免费下载该游戏（游戏邦注：Rovio之前曾推出免费版《愤怒的小鸟》，但这只是仅含少量关卡的“精简版”），但并未透露采取这一措施的原因，有人猜测这可能是Rovio为顺应免费增值游戏盛行这一趋势而采取的行动。

angry_birds(from macrumors)

该游戏在Android平台已经有免费的广告赞助版本，但苹果iOS完整版游戏却一直是付费版本。

3）据games.com报道，Rovio最近发布基于动画电影《The Croods》（将于3月22日上映）的同名手机游戏预告视频，从中可看出，玩家将在史前石器时代中狩猎、收集多种资源，该游戏将于3月14日发布。

the-croods(from macrumors.com)

4）据mobile-ent报道，在Google Play更名一周年（原名为Android Market）之际，谷歌近日宣布Google Play现在已有1800万首歌曲，超过500万的电子书，以及70万以上的应用程序。

Google_Play_infographic(from Google)

5）MobileInsurance.co.uk最近调查结果显示，平均每名英国手机用户每年在移动设备上投入时间将近23天（游戏邦注：调查样本为2314名年龄超过18岁的英国用户）。

这些用户平均每天在手机上投入时间将近90分钟，也就是每年平均22.8天（英国成年人平均寿命约62岁），有86%受访者表示自己的生活中不能没有手机。

mobile-users(from qrcodepress.com)

24%受访者常使用手机上网，21%用户的手机主要用来发短信。

与此同时，17%受访者的手机主要用于打电话，15%用于访问应用程序，13%用于发送邮件，6%用于拍照，4%使用其他功能。

6）应用商店分析公司App Annie日前发布数据分析了iOS和Google Play应用商店中社交网络应用的表现情况：

从2012年1月至2013年1月，社交网络应用在iOS平台的月收益排名中，从第12名上升至第3名（游戏和实用工具分别位居第一、第二），其收益比去年增长87%（2012年1月该类应用在苹果App Store收益中仅占比3%）。

Top categories by monthly revenue(from App Annie)

从月收益来看，日本社交网络应用发展最快，同比上年增长10倍，其中最为领先的是Line（该应用在2012年初已是日本下载冠军，之后又在2012年4月晋升至收益榜单首位）。

尽管这类应用收益排名上升了9位，但从iOS月下载量来看，其排名已从去年的第5名降至第6名。不过虽然排名下降，其下载量却仍比去年增长30%。从社交应用下载量来看，中国市场发展最迅速，月下载量比去年同期翻倍增长。目前全球有半数社交网络应用下载量来自中美两国（但中国市场收益仍然较低）。

2013年1月在iOS平台月下载量排名第一的是Facebook Messenger（去年排名第一的是Facebook），苹果推出的Find My Friends则从去年第15名上升至第2名。Pinterest位列第8名，腾讯推出的微信位居第6名。

Top social networking apps by monthly downloads(from App Annie)

从收益排名来看，1月份排名第一的是NHN Japan推出的Line，WhatsApp Messenger位居第二（其iOS版本售价0.99美元，而Android版本则是先免费试用一年，之后每年收取0.99美元的订阅费用）。

top social networking apps by montly revenue(from App Annie)

在1月份iOS平台前十大发行商排行榜中，下载量排名增幅最大的是Imangi Studios，从原来的第34名上升至第5名；从收益情况来看，GungHo Online上升4位，晋升至第一名。从iOS热门游戏榜单来看，1月份下载量位居第一的是《Temple Run 2》，收益位居第一的是《Puzzle & Dragons》（打败了《Clash of Clans》）。

从Google Play平台来看，发行商下载量排行榜变化不大，GungHo Online在发行商收益榜单位居第一；Kiloo的跑酷游戏《Subway Surfers》位居游戏下载量榜单第一名（上升6名），《Puzzle & Dragons》再次位居游戏月收益榜单之首，排名第二的是韩国娱乐公司CJ E&M推出竞速游戏《Cha Cha Cha for Kakao》。（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）Disney dominates the top three spots on the paid iPad apps chart

by Zen Terrelonge

Mobile adaptions of movie franchises prove to be a big draw for Brits.

Disney is celebrating a first, reporting that three of its mobile games have bagged the top three spots on the UK Top 10 Paid iPad Apps Chart.

Temple Run: Oz has bagged the top spot after launching earlier this week, while fellow new release Toy Story: Smash It! is in second place, followed by Wreck-It Ralph in third.

Imangi Studios’ Temple Run franchise is hugely popular, and Temple Run 2 recently broke Angry Birds’ record and reached 50m downloads in 13 days.

Oz: The Great and Powerful, which is what Temple Run: Oz is based on, doesn’t actually hit cinemas until Friday, March 8th, and yet this doesn’t seem to have any impact on consumers embracing the game with zeal.（source：mobile-ent）

2）Free-for-all: Angry Birds goes free on iOS for first time

by Keith Andrew

The original version of Angry Birds is now available for free on iOS for both iPhone and iPad, it has been revealed, with Rovio ditching the game’s price tag out of the blue.

Rovio has previously offered free versions of the game on iOS, but they’ve served as ‘lite’ versions, restricting play to a few set levels.

As such, this is the first time the full game has been offered without charge on the App Store.

Out of the blue

Free ad-supported versions of Angry Birds have also appeared on other platforms, such as Android, but never on Apple’s OS.

As a result, the aforementioned free versions of the game have been pulled, with the full release taking their place.

It’s not clear, however, whether this is a permanent move, or whether the all conquering franchise is having trouble maintaining its previously impressive download rate in an era where free-to-play dominates. Rovio is yet to offer comment.

At last count, the Angry Birds franchise stood at 1 billion downloads, although said figure was released in May 2012.（source：pocketgamer）

3）Rovio Unveils The Croods Gameplay Trailer

by Chris Buffa

With The Croods animated film set to appear in theaters March 22, Angry Birds developer Rovio Entertainment hopes to capitalize on all the fanfare with an iOS and Android game sharing the same title. Based on today’s trailer, it will involve kicking it caveman style. In other words, trapping animals, surviving one’s in-laws and gathering a variety of items. Just as our ancestors did back in the day, yes?

Look for the game March 14.（source：games）

4）Google Play marks first birthday with 18m songs, 5m e-books, 700k apps

by Zen Terrelonge

Time spent as Android Market is now something of a distant memory.

Exactly one year ago, Google rebranded Android Market as Google Play, citing a vision to make its mobile media content more attractive and accessible – across phones, tablets, PC – to Android device users.

At the time of the launch, Google boasted 20,000 songs, 450,000 apps/games, and ‘the world’s largest selection of ebooks’. With the search giant now celebrating the first birthday of its new baby, it claims Google Play has over 18 million songs, more than five million ebooks and over 700,000 apps.

It seems the rebrand has paid off massively, while the marketplace will have also flourished as OEMs continue to adopt the Android OS for their devices. In fact, Android is set to power 58 per cent of this year’s smartphone app downloads, prompting developers to become Android-first.

Jamie Rosenberg, VP of digital content, Google Play, said: “Google Play has grown rapidly in the last year, bringing you more content in more languages and places around the globe. We’ve partnered with all of the major music companies, movie studios and publishers to bring you the music, movies, TV shows, books and magazines you love. And we’ve added more ways for you to buy them, including paying through your phone bill and gift cards, which we’re beginning to roll out in the U.K. this week.

“Since no birthday is complete without presents, we’re celebrating with a bunch of special offers across the store on songs, TV shows, movies and books. We’re even offering a collection of games with some fun birthday surprises created by developers.”（source：mobile-ent）

5）Britons spend almost 23 entire days on their phone every year

by Daniel Gumble

Most of that time is spent browsing the web.

The average UK mobile phone owner spends almost 23 full days per year on their handset, according to research from MobileInsurance.co.uk.

The research, which is part of an on-going study into the mobile phone habits of UK adults, saw 2,314 respondents aged over 18 participate in the poll.

When asked how much time they spend on their phones each day, the average answer was approximately 90 minutes, equating to 22.8 days per year when considering the average adult life expectancy in the UK is around 62 years.

24 per cent of respondents said that they used their phone mostly for browsing the Internet, while 21 per cent suggested that they use their device primarily for sending texts.

Meanwhile, 17 per cent of respondents said they use their phone predominantly for making calls, 15 per cent for using apps, 13 per cent for sending email, six per cent for taking pictures and four per cent for ‘other’.

However, despite spending so much time on their mobiles, a hefty 79 per cent confessed to not insuring their devices; a somewhat surprising figure given that 86 per cent felt that they ‘couldn’t live without’ their phone.

Jason Brockman, director of MobileInsurance.co.uk, commented: “I was amazed to see how much we use our mobile phones over the course of a year and even our whole adult lifetime. To see that we text, call, browse the net, use apps, take pictures and more for almost four years in our lifetime is astounding.

“We are clearly a nation of mobile phone addicts, which is why it’s so surprising that so many still fail to insure their handsets. If you think you can’t live without it, make sure it’s protected!”（source：mobile-ent）

6）App Annie analyzes the social networking category in the app stores

Scott Reyburn

App Annie logoApp store analytics company App Annie today released its Index for February 2013, analyzing the social networking category in the app stores, and apps dominating the space including WeChat, Line, Kakao, Zoosk, Badoo, Find My Friends, Facebook and more.

From January 2012 to January 2013, the social networking category moved from the No. 12 largest category in terms of monthly iOS revenue, to the No. 3 spot, behind the games and productivity categories. That translates to an 87 percent increase year-over-year, when the social networking category represented only 3 percent of total Apple App Store revenue in January 2102.

App Annie saw revenue growth in the category across all major countries. Japan showed the most growth, with a tenfold increase in monthly revenue year-over-year from social networking apps, led by messaging app Line. South Korean NHN Corp.’s Line was already at the top of the download charts at the beginning of 2012, and later moved up the top grossing charts in April 2012.App Annie top categories by monthly revenue iOS January 2013

App Annie vice president of marketing Oliver Lo, formerly of Zynga’s China office, tells Inside Mobile Apps that App Annie is seeing the same regional trend social networks went through on the web, where social networks like Orkut, Mixi and Friendster dominated certain regions until Facebook took over and became the dominant social network globally.

“Social networking in mobile is in an early stage, and we’re seeing that it’s more akin to the early stages in web, where it is regional and the top social networking app in each region isn’t the same app,” he says. “It will be interesting to see if that continues or if one player dominates globally.”

Although the social networking category jumped nine spot on App Annie’s top categories by monthly revenue for iOS, the category dropped down 1 spot from No. 5 to No. 6 year-over-year on the top categories by monthly downloads for iOS. Despite the drop in ranking, downloads for apps in the social networking category were up 30 percent year-over-year, and social networking apps account for 5 percent of total downloads on the Apple App Store. China was the notable country that showed the fastest growth by downloads for social networking apps, seeing monthly downloads double from January 2012 to January 2013. Currently, half of the downloads in the social networking category worldwide come from the U.S. and China — although revenue from social networking apps in China remains low. Apps that contributed to China’s download growth in the social networking category were Micro Love — For Lovers from Discovery Bay and Love Chat — Free Call, published by Ailiao.

App Annie listed the top social networking apps worldwide by monthly downloads for iOS in January 2013, showing Facebook Messenger at the No. 1 spot. At the same time last year, the Facebook app was the No. 1 app, only to be dethroned by one of other apps in its portfolio like Instagram and Poke. Lo believes this is a sign that Facebook’s multi-app portfolio strategy is working.

Interestingly, Apple’s Find My Friends app catapulted up App Annie’s chart from the No. 15 spot to the No. 2 spot year-over-year. The release of iOS 6 in September 2012 contributed to the surge in downloads for Find My Friends, as users were promoted with the option to download the app among other Apple apps when upgrading from iOS 5 to 6 or activating a new iOS device. Other notable apps in the top 10 were Pinterest at the No. 8 spot and Tencent’s WeChat, the dominant messaging app in China, at the No. 6 position.

The top iOS social networking app by revenue for January 2013 was NHN Japan’s Line, thanks to its in-app purchases of a special emoji, known as “stickers,” which were mostly purchased by the Japanese audience. WhatsApp Messenger, the popular messaging app in the states, came in at the No. 2 spot. What’s interesting about WhatsApp is how it monetizes. On iOS, its a premium download for $0.99, while on Android a $0.99 per year subscription kicks in after the first free year ends. Dating apps rounded out the top 10, with the likes of Badoo, eHarmony and Match.com, as well as gay dating apps such as Grindr Xtra and Scruff.

“The [dating apps] are embracing the in-app purchase model,” Lo says. “They are essentially selling various dating features like extra messages, getting your profile to the top so more people see your dating profile and a bunch of other social features and mechanisms that can monetize people through microtransactions.”

Lo explains that the apps at the top of the download list predominately monetize through an ad model, while apps on the revenue list monetize through an up-front cost or predominantly from in-app purchases.

“Clearly monetizing through mobile advertising is a challenge. No one has figured that out yet. No one is able to monetize at the same rates as web advertising. Whereas those [apps] monetizing through the [app] store are monetizing at same, if not, a higher rate on mobile.

When breaking down the top grossing iOS social networking apps by region, App Annie saw huge differences. Line was still the top grossing social networking app in countries like Japan, Thailand and Taiwan, while other apps were No. 1 in other countries. WhatsApp Messenger for the U.K., Russia, Germany, Italy and Spain, and dating app Zoosk for the U.S., Canada and Australia. AdopteUnMec, aka AdoptAGuy.com, became the No. 1 top grossing social networking app in France as of January 2013.

App Annie also updated its monthly top 10 publishers and apps charts for both Apple and Google. The biggest mover this month on the top iOS publishers by monthly downloads was Imangi Studios, jumping 34 spots to the No. 5 rank as of January 2013. The studio’s recently released endless runner game Temple Run 2 shattered download records, raking in 20 million downloads in four days and 50 million downloads in two weeks. As for the top iOS publishers by monthly revenue, GungHo Online moved up four spots in January 2013 to the No. 1 spot, thanks to the success of Puzzle & Dragons. As for apps, Temple Run 2 took the No. 1 spot among the top 10 game apps by downloads in January, while Puzzle & Dragons grabbed the No. 1 spot by revenue, dethroning Supercell’s Clash of Clans. Non-game apps-wise, both Facebook Messenger and app discovery service AppGratis leaped up the top iOS non-game apps by monthly downloads charts, with Facebook Messenger ranking No. 5 and AppGratis No. 9. WhatsApp Messenger made a return on the top 10 iOS non-game apps by revenue at the No. 5 spot.

For Google Play, the top publishers by monthly downloads list for January didn’t show any significant changes since last month. By revenue, GungHo Online moved up two spots month-over-month, taking the No. 1 spot on Google Play as well as the Apple App Store. Kiloo’s endless runner Subway Surfers ran six spots up the top games by monthly downloads chart to the No. 1 spot, and Puzzle & Dragons took the No. 1 spot among the top games by monthly revenue on Google Play as well as the Apple App Store. South Korean Entertainment company CJ E&M robot-racing fusion game Cha Cha Cha for Kakao landed at the No. 2 spot among the top grossing Google Play games. The game leverages messaging app Kakao’s gaming platform, which integrates Kakao’s social graph into games on its platform. Google Play showed no new apps in January on the top 10 non-game apps by monthly downloads chart, while on the revenue chat, Kakao jumped 30 spots to the No. 3 spot and fitness app Noom Weight Loss Coach climbed 117 spots to the No. 5 spot.（source：insidemobileapps）