1）市场调研公司IDC预测，手机应用程序下载量将从2010年的107亿次增长至2015年的1830亿次左右，远超过ABI Research所预测的2016年440亿次下载量。

mobile-apps(from tommytoy.typepad.com)

IDC认为开发者将从付费下载盈利模式转向应用内置付费功能、广告赞助等商业模式。今年4月份，IDC曾指出今年第一季度，由于智能手机出货量的增长，全球移动市场规模同比去年增长19.8%。

2）继不久前与好莱坞人才机构William Morris签署合作协议之后，Outfit7近日又向娱乐领域迈进一步，与Mr.Clean、Jack Daniel’s、福特汽车和AT&T等品牌背后的授权机构Beanstalk联手，将把Outfit7品牌引进玩具、游戏、书籍等其他锁定各具年龄段的儿童用品领域。

Outfit7_talking_tom_(from sparkpr.com)

据该公司首席营销官Paul Baldwin所述，Outfit7有意成为与皮克斯一样指向所有年龄层的用户品牌；Outfit7旗下的11款Talking Friends系列应用的下载量已达1.35亿次。

3）谷歌Android平台高管Andy Rubin日前发贴表示，Android设备每日激活量为50万部，每周增幅达4.4%。在5月份的谷歌I/O开发者大会上，该公司曾宣布Android设备的激活量已超1亿部（游戏邦注：当时每日激活量为40万部），由此可以推算，Android设备目前的激活量已逾1.22亿部。

Andy Rubin--Android devices activated(from insidemobileapps)

但从总体上来看，Android激活量仍逊色于苹果iOS，后者移动设备当前销量已超过2亿部，不过这两者的差距正在缩小。

4）美国最大的实体书店Barnes & Noble在其Nook Color电子阅读器和平板电脑推出“Magic Places”版本的《愤怒的小鸟》，支持玩家在Barnes & Noble书店的Wi-Fi网络中免费使用“通关神鹰”这一功能。Rovio表示将推出更多游戏内奖励和可解琐的内容以吸引玩家不断回访游戏。

nook-color-angry-birds(from slashgear.com)

Barnes & Noble书店同时还将出售玩具、游戏等《愤怒的小鸟》周边产品，并向儿童用户免费赠送小鸟贴纸和临时性的纹身。

5）EA Games总裁Frank Gibeau在最近的媒体采访中表示，EA Games的免费游戏发展极为迅速，目前用户规模已达1700万。他称EA Games当前的发展前途主要寄托于智能手机、平板电脑、免费模式、网页和社交等类型的游戏，并指出EA新推出的在线数字销售渠道Origin网站也将植入社交功能，以便EA Games实现多平台运营的发展目标。

Frank-Gibeau(from next-gen.biz)

6）日本手机社交游戏公司DeNA近日宣布在韩国首尔成立工作室，并由首席执行官Makoto Haruta担任新工作室主管。据Penn Olson报道，DeNA首尔工作室将成为公司与当地企业的B2B业务运营纽带，它是DeNA在中国、美国、荷兰三地之外的第四家日本境外工作室。

7）据pocketgamer报道，Lemico Soft近日推出一款听起来像《World of Goo》，看起来像《Feed Me Oil》，而玩法却像《Pipe Mania》的这种“三合一”游戏《World of Oil》。《World of Goo》是一款在PC、Wii和iPad平台极为成功的独立游戏作品，《Feed Me Oil》是由EA旗下的Chillingo发布的热门物理益智游戏，而《Pipe Mania》却是一款早已在1989年被遗忘的游戏。

world-of-oil(from pocketgamer)

形象与两款杰作相似，但玩法却向一款过气游戏看齐的《World of Oil》目前发布的是免费版本，但玩家可付费99美分解琐新内容。

8）绑定OpenFeint功能的世嘉iOS游戏《Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing》在6月23日发布后，迅速攀升至iPhone平台付费榜单第21名，并成为iPad平台的付费游戏冠军。

sonic-sega-all-stars-racing(from app.downloadatoz.com)

这款售价4.99美元的游戏保留了原Mario Kart品牌游戏的精髓，但是将其中的赛车替换成了体现各角色个性的车型。该游戏除了提供单人模式的“Grand Prix”系列赛事，还支持玩家参与独立竞速赛、计时赛和一个有趣的“任务”模式。游戏中植入了OpenFeint和Game Center的积分排行榜功能，玩家可赢取虚拟货币解琐新角色和内容。从多种游戏模式和独特的赛道上来看，《Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing》的确是一款值得一试的好游戏。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）DC Predicts 183 Billion Mobile App Downloads By 2015, Rise Of In-App Purchasing

Robin Wauters

Research firm IDC forecasts the number of annual mobile app downloads to increase from 10.7 billion in 2010 to nearly 183 billion by 2015, notably more than the 44 billion mobile app downloads by 2016 forecasted by its competitor ABI Research.

IDC says the bigger story behind the numbers is an impending shift away from the current reliance upon mobile app download purchases as the primary focus of app monetization.

Rather, IDC says, developers will focus increasingly on in-app purchasing and advertising to fund business models, a shift that the firm says is most evident in the free app category.

Last January, in its January 20111 Appcelerator/IDC 1Q11 Mobile App Developer Survey Report, IDC posited that developers were increasingly planning to incorporate in-app purchasing, mobile advertising, and mobile commerce in their mobile applications.

IDC says its outlook on the mobile application market is informed by conversations with a “wide variety of players in the mobile app marketplace”, as well as financial and product announcements and its quarterly survey of Appcelerator’s 70,000+ mobile app developer base.

Two months ago, IDC reported that the global mobile phone market had ballooned in the first quarter of this year, growing 19.8 percent year-over-year, mostly due to the meteoric rise of smartphone shipments.（source:techcrunch）

2）Outfit7 climbs the beanstalk to find a mainstream audience

Meghan Kelly

The Talking Friends have taken yet another step toward the entertainment industry. Last week, mobile gaming company Outfit7 announced a signed deal with talent agency William Morris Entertainment. Now, they have partnered with Beanstalk, the licensing agency behind brands like Mr. Clean, Jack Daniel’s, Ford Motor Co., AT&T and more.

Beanstalk plans to launch a global licensing program for Outfit7 that will include toys, games, books and other goods tailored to children of various age groups. Products will engage children in speech, motor skill and sensory experiences as well as upper-level elements such as reading, writing and music.

Some of Outfit7′s key demographics may be surprising. Children aged two through eight as well as tweens are obvious targets, but also included are teens and adults – two demographics that the company already engages, according to chief marketing officer Paul Baldwin. Outfit7 has previously stated its desire to become, like Pixar, a company “for all ages.” It’s even planning products in markets like home décor that could attract older audiences. Enough college dorm rooms have a Spongebob Squarepants plushie for me to believe there is money to be made in older demographics.

Beanstalk CEO Michael Stone takes a lot of interest in the evolution of apps as well as large-scale entertainment. “While video games, digital and online properties have a long history of brand extensions and licensing, we are just witnessing the tip of the iceberg for app-brand licensing.  This is the new frontier of licensing and we are delighted to be a part of it.”

Even Outfit7 employees have had experience taking video games to Hollywood. Baldwin cited his role in acquiring an agent for the Lara Croft video game character, which helped launch the digital dame into a key role for Angelina Jolie.

Outfit7 currently has 11 Talking Friends with 135 million downloads since July 2010. CEO Andrej Nabergoj is a speaker at GamesBeat.（source:venturebeat）

3）Android Now Seeing 500,000 Device Activations Per Day, 4.4% Week-Over-Week Growth

By Kim-Mai Cutler

Andy Rubin, who is leading Google’s Android efforts, said the platform is now seeing 500,000 device activations a day with 4.4 percent week-over-week growth.

At this pace, there have probably been just over 122 million Android devices activated, up from the 100 million figure the company announced in May at the I/O developer conference.

At that point in time, Android was seeing 400,000 device activations per day. Overall, this is still falls short compared to the reach of Apple’s iOS platform, which has seen more than 200 million devices cumulatively sold. But the gap is quickly closing.（source:insidemobileapps）

4）Nook Color first to offer Angry Birds with location-based extras

Sean Ludwig

Barnes & Noble said Tuesday its Nook Color e-reader and tablet would be the first device to offer a real-world tie-in to the insanely popular Angry Birds game.

The original Angry Birds title hit 140 million downloads in April, and that number continues to climb as the game flies to every platform it can.

What’s different about the new Nook Color version is the inclusion of the “Magic Places” feature. The feature opens up extras when users play the game while connected to the Wi-Fi network at a Barnes & Noble store. Players at the store will get to use the “Mighty Eagle” bird—which basically demolishes everything on screen—on levels for free. Developer Rovio also said there will be other in-game rewards and unlockable content for users who come back several times.

Barnes & Noble will be scratching Rovio’s back by offering shelf space to Angry Birds merchandise, such as games, toys and merchandise. There will also be free Angry Birds stickers and temporary tattoos for children（source:venturebeat）

5）Smartphones and tablets every bit as important as consoles, claims EA Games head Gibeau

by Keith Andrew

With the likes of Chillingo and Firemint already under its belt, it’s hard to ignore EA’s commitment to the mobile market.

Just how important portable platforms – and the kind of games that inhabit them – are to the publisher, however, has been revealed by EA Games head Frank Gibeau, who has made it clear they no longer play second fiddle to its offerings on PC and console.

“We’re aggressively investing in things that are very low cost like free-to-play,” Gibeau told GamesIndustry.biz.

“The free-to-play group inside of EA Games is growing extremely fast – we’ve got 17 million users.”

Side by side

Free-to-play exists beyond mobile in EA’s output, with PC release Need for Speed World enabling the publisher to reach territories such as Russia, Ukraine and South America.

On any platform, however, Gibeau claims what’s important for EA is such offerings don’t impact on the publisher’s existing business.

“Frankly when they get to scale, have huge audiences, are very profitable, they’re not cannibalising the main games and they actually reach markets that we’re not currently serving,” he added.

“It’s a very exciting time from our perspective because it’s not all about consoles. It’s about smartphones, tablets, free-to-play, browser, social.”

Linking up

Gibeau also cast further light on Origin – EA’s refreshed online distribution network with built in social features – and the role it will have to play in helping the publisher reach its multiplatform goals.

“We’ve been changing the way we develop games so that we can have them on smartphone, tablets, in addition to console and PC,” he added.

“It’s all part of the digital transition that we’re going through and Origin is the platform on which we’ll be able to publish and service customers on mobile as well as PC platforms, and then link to the consoles in unique ways as they develop.”（source:pocketgamer）

6）DeNA Opens Office In South Korea [Social Games]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

DeNA today announced they opened an office in South Korea on June 13. DeNA Seoul Co., Ltd. is being led by Makoto Haruta who joined the company as early as 2000 and was the CFO – until DeNA did away with titles for their executives a few months ago (he is now listed as Director and Chairman).

DeNA explains:

Haruta’s charter will be to steer partnerships with Korean companies, including game developers, to bring content to the Mobage network in South Korea, Japan and the US.

Asian tech news site Penn Olson reports that DeNA Seoul will serve as the “B2B point” between DeNA and local companies.

The South Korean office is the fourth outside Japan for DeNA, which is also present in in China, the United States and the Netherlands.（source:serkantoto）

7）World of Oil for iOS sounds like World of Goo, looks like Feed Me Oil, plays like Pipe Mania

by Rob Hearn

When action game Darksiders came to home consoles last year, it was dismissed by some as derivative of Zelda and God of War. Of course, only a fool would dismiss a game on the grounds that it’s similar to two great games, and those who shunned Darksiders for this reason missed out on a solid romp.

World of Oil, a new iOS game from developer Lemico Soft, is not like Darksiders. It’s not like Darksiders at all. While it ostensibly – and blatantly – steals from both World of Goo and Feed Me Oil in terms of its presentation (see below), for its gameplay it borrows from a different game altogether: Pipe Mania.

Let’s break that down.

World of Goo is a hugely successful indie game which was a hit on PC and Wii before coming to iPad last year. It took a Pocket Gamer Gold and won in the iPad Game of the Year category in the Pocket Gamer Awards 2011.

Feed Me Oil is a popular physics puzzler published by EA-owned iOS hit factory Chillingo. It took a Pocket Gamer Bronze and reached the top of the App Store Paid charts.

Pipe Mania is a forgettable puzzle game from 1989.

World of Oil looks like two good games and plays like one boring game. Assuming it hasn’t been pulled for passing off by the time this story goes live it’s available now as a free app (though you’ll have to pay 59p to unlock the whole thing.)（source:pocketgamer）

8）Sonic Rises Up The Grossing Charts with Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing

By Christopher Mack

Earlier this month, we highlighted the partnership between Sega and OpenFeint in the upcoming iOS racing title Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. Now, the game is out on both the iPad and iPhone and since its June 23rd release, has risen rapidly up both respective paid app charts reaching #21 on iPhone and topping the iPad lists at #1.

Running $4.99, the game is, for all intents and purposes, a Sega-branded rendition of the popular Mario Kart franchise, hosting the same core go-kart racing mechanics. However, it replaces generic carts with vehicles that show off a little bit of each character’s personality. From Sonic to Super Monkey Ball, the game places users into original courses from around the various Sega franchises.

Overall, Sonic & SEGA All-Star Racing is a decent game for what it is, but it isn’t exactly original from a conceptual point-of-view. It’s the same game as the Mario Kart of yesteryear, with many of the mechanics and items emulating the original. Nevertheless, with a multitude of game modes and unique and interesting race tracks, this Sega title is still fun to play.（source:insidemobileapps）