1）Berg Insight最新数据显示，2012年全球高端智能手机销量突破4000万部，而整体智能手机销量则从2011年的4.7亿部增长将近47%，达到6.9亿部（游戏邦注：这里所指的高端智能手机零售价超过400欧元，低端智能手机售价则不超过100美元）。

预计2017年智能手机销量将达15亿部，届时这些设备至少都采用了双核处理器，其中多数则采用四核处理器。

smartphones(from engadget.com)

2）据insidesocialgames报道，Zynga日前通过公司博客宣布收购Spooky Cool Labs，以辅助开发公司的社交博彩游戏。

Zynga(from allthingsd.com)

Spooky Cool Labs团队拥有社交博彩游戏背景，其创始人Joe Kaminkow曾被Strictly Slots Magazine评为赌博史上十大最有影响力的人物之一。该团队最新游戏是基于电影《绿野仙踪》的同名社交游戏，据AppData数据显示，该游戏目前月活跃用户为18万8386，日活跃用户为1万9785（这一游戏项目也在Zynga收购范围之内）。

3）据pocketgamer报道，在Supercell日前举办的Free Your Play 2013大会上，休闲游戏公司King代表Tommy Palm认为“制作免费游戏的最大错误做法”这一问题的答案是“停止创新”，Supercell游戏《Clash of Clans》制作主管Lassi Leppinen则认为是“制作出糟糕的游戏”；Wargaming通信主管Tom Putzki认为是“采用‘付费获胜’的策略”。

F2P(from vidoser.com)

Tommy Palm还指出于关于新手教程的建议，他认为开发者应把教程作为游戏的第五个关卡，制作更多简单的关卡，而像King游戏这种瞄准休闲玩家的作品更是如此。

与会者均认为一般情况而言，游戏第一天的留存率为40%，第7天为20%，第30天为10%。

4）Tapjoy最近发布数据显示，在2010至2012年之间，采用Tapjoy盈利策略的开发者创收已超过2亿美元。仅在2012年，就有35家发行商通过采用Tapjoy盈利模型创收超过50万美元，有18家发行商盈利超过100万美元。

Tapjoy指出在使用其盈利方案的前50名高收益开发商中，有29家位于美国，9家在亚洲，6家来自加拿大，5家位于欧洲。

Tapjoy(from tigerstartups)

在这50大应用开发商中，有7家成立尚不足一年，12家至少已成立满一年。这7家新兴公司合并总收益超过650万美元，12家资历较老的开发商收益合计达3000万美元。

Tapjoy还指出其盈利方案为团队规模在20人以内的工作室创收将近500万美元。

5）据Small Business Trends报道，Mobile Marketing Association(MMA)最新报告预测，2015年移动销售额将达4000亿美元，2010至2015年增长率超过50%。

iphone(from insidemobileapps)

在2010至2013年，企业在移动营销中投入的资金增长超过4倍，到2015年广告商的投入将达200亿美元。（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）40 million quad-core smartphones shipped in 2012

by Phil Tottman

Berg Insight research shows a 47 per cent increase in overall smartphone sales.

Sales of high-end smartphones exceeded 40 million worldwide last year, while the overall number of smartphone sales grew by almost 47 per cent from 470 million in 2011 to 690 million, according to new figures published by Berg Insight.

The growth was boosted primarily by sales of higher-end devices with unsubsidised retail prices in excess of €400 and low-cost smartphones priced around $100 and below.

Initially launched in 2011, smartphones with dual-core application processors offered more than double the power of previous devices. Quad-core handsets then followed in 2012, offering mobile consumers a wide range of high-end devices to choose from across a wide range of prices.

Andre Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight, said: “It becomes more difficult for consumers to make comparisons between handsets when application processor vendors introduce SoCs based on different CPU architectures and core counts, each with different performance depending on specific workload.”

Berg has also predicted that nearly all of the projected 1.5 billion smartphones sold in 2017 will posses dual-core processors at the very least, while the majority will contain quad-core processors.（source：mobile-ent）

2）Zynga acquires Spooky Cool Labs for social casino efforts

Jonathan Espinosa

Amidst recent layoffs and corporate restructuring, Zynga has acquired Spooky Cool Labs, announced on Zynga’s company blog. With Zynga looking to strengthen its social casino offerings, the company has acquired Spooky Cool Labs to assist in development of more social casino games.

The Spooky Cool Labs team is made up of social and money casino gaming veterans. Company founder, Joe Kaminkow, was ranked as one of the 10 most influential people in the history of slots by Strictly Slots Magazine.

Though it is a leading developer for social casino games, Spooky Cool Labs’s newest game is actually a Wizard of Oz city-building game available on Facebook and iOS. According to AppData, the game has an estimated 188,386 monthly active users with 19,785 daily active users. TechCrunch has reported that the Wizard of Oz brand is also part of the deal.

Spooky Cool Labs will remain Chicago-based, but will work with Zynga’s SF based social casino gaming team. Cofounder Joe Kaminkow will continue to lead game design at Aristocrat Leisure
Limited, one of the top land-based slots manufacturers.

Kaminkow also shared,

“We are proud to now be a part of the Zynga team and are confident that we bring a particular excellence in game development to the social casino genre. We are excited about our games which are fun to play and that include leading licensed content that resonate with players worldwide.  This, combined with Zynga’s leading social gaming expertise will help us further our joint long-term vision of offering our players the most engaging and accessible social casino experiences across multiple platforms worldwide.”

Zynga’s interest in casino and real-money gaming is nothing new. We have speculated that Zynga may not be able to convert its non-real money spending audience. It is also unlikely to be legal in the US anytime soon. Industry executives have also stated the real-money gaming market is already over saturated.

Phil Gordon, founder and CEO of social gaming startup Jawfish Games, had told Inside Mobile Apps his advice to Zynga was to acquire a small, existing real-money poker or real-money gaming provider in order to kick start what he sees as a “difficult” and “painful” learning experience. With the acquisition of Spooky Cool Labs, Zynga has done just that.（source：insidesocialgames）

3）Make in-game item prices high because they will only fall over time, says Supercell

by Jon Jordan

‘What’s the biggest mistake you can make a free-to-play games?’

That was the opening question from moderator Bret Terrill at the panel talk at Supercell’s Free Your Play 2013 event.

“Stop being innovative,” said Tommy Palm from King, harking back to Ben Cousins’ keynote.

“Making a bad game,” said Lassi Leppinen, Clash of Clans’ product lead at Supercell.

“Having your game play-to-win,” said Tom Putzki, head of communications, at Wargaming.

He had a specific example too. Famously, Wargaming had to remove its best-selling in-game item from World of Tanks – a Chinese tier 8 tank – because it was so powerful and unbalancing the entire gameplay.

Leppinen also had a point to make.

“You need to make the prices [for in-game items] high in the beginning because you can’t increase them later. Prices will drop down over time anyhow,” he said.

From the gut

Of course, metrics is a large part of mobile game development. Everyone wants to know how the most successful companies use the data they receive; most don’t what to share any details, though.

The panel agreed that the standard 40 percent day 1 retention, 20 percent day 7 and 10 percent day 30 was a good rule of thumb.

But being creatives, there is a trend of not totally relying (or admitting to rely) on analytics.

“We have been trying to follow our gut feeling and using analytics to back that up,” Leppinen said.

Meanwhile Daisuke Yamamoto from GungHo spoke about taking advice from his wife, who is a keen player of Puzzle & Dragons.

Tommy Palm was also keen to give advice on tutorials.

“Make your tutorial and then make that your fifth level,” he said, arguing you need to make many more easier levels, especially when like King you’re targeting a very casual audience.（source：pocketgamer）

4）Tapjoy developers earned over $200 million between 2010 and 2012

by Matthew Diener

Monetisation and distribution service provider Tapjoy recently posted some figures on the performance of its proprietary network over the past few years.

Between 2010 and 2012, Tapjoy reports that developers on its network earned more than $200 million through its monetisation strategies.

But this success isn’t isolated to a few high-profile names – in 2012 alone, 35 publishers earned over $500,000 by leveraging Tapjoy’s monetisation model, and 18 publishers earned more than $1 million.

Customer focused

Tapjoy also provided some insight into the performance of its top 50 app developers (ranked according to revenue earned via Tapjoy monetisation) and disclosed that 29 of these are based in the United States, with nine in Asia, six in Canada, and five in Europe.

Further, seven of these top 50 app developers are a year old or less, while twelve developers in the top 50 are a decade old (or older).

For the young turks above, Tapjoy generated a combined sum of more than $6.5 million spread across the seven, while the twelve decade-or-older developers earned a combined $30 million through Tapjoy’s monetisation solutions.

The firm also noted that it generated nearly $5 million for studios with 20 employees or less.（source：pocketgamer）

5）Mobile Marketing and Sales to Skyrocket by 2015

Brian Mossop

According to a report from the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), mobile sales will hit $400 billion by 2015, boasting an annual growth rate of more than 50% between 2010-2015, as reported by Small Business Trends.

Between 2010 and 2013 the amount of money spent by companies on mobile marketing increased more than 4-fold. If the trend holds true, advertisers may be spending up to $20 billion by 2015.

According to the Harvard Business Review (HBR), mobile advertising is no longer just about conversions. It matters less if companies turn consumers into buyers on the spot. Now, advertisers are focusing on the smartphone’s strengths, such as rich media and targeted ads to engage the customer on a much deeper level. For example, once a user interacts with a mobile ad, companies should instead hook the consumer by having them fill out a form or make an appointment when prompted.（source：insidemobileapps）