1）移动分析公司Flurry最近报告指出，今年10月份Android和iOS平台共收获26亿次下载量，远超去年同期的6亿次，预计12月份将突破30亿次下载量。

app-downloads(from Flurry)

从总体上看，每月应用下载量增幅为11.4%，App Store与Android Market两者应用数量已达80万款，在7月份的这一数据则是67.5万款。

marketplace-apps(from Flurry)

Flurry数据还显示了这两个平台应用的用户留存情况，如下图所示，横轴上的“0”表示100%的用户开始运行一款应用程序的起点，三个月后，存在使用的用户比例为24%，六个月后的这一比例缩减至14%，12个月后的留存率仅为4%（游戏邦注：Flurry的这项分析数据采自25款合计下载量达5.5亿次的应用）。

user retention(from Flurry)

2）斯洛文尼亚应用开发商Outfit7最近宣布旗下的Talking系列已突破2.25亿次下载量，MAU达6000万，其MAU几乎是今年初的三倍，目前每月下载量约2000万次。

该公司董事长表示，他们实现2亿次下载量的发展速度超过了之前的1亿次下载量（游戏邦注：观察者称这个数据并不令人意外，因为苹果在10月份已合计售出了2.5亿部iOS设备，远超过1月份时的1.6亿部。而Android在10月份也达到了1.9亿部的移动设备激活量，超过了5月份时的1亿部。所以顶级应用开发商在短时间内获得巨大下载量也并不奇怪）。

talking-tom(from insidemobileapps)

Outfit7目前在塞浦路斯总部有40名成员，在硅谷、卢布尔雅那（斯洛文尼亚共和国首都）设有工作室，该公司在今年初曾表示计划通过推出其角色形象授权，成为下一个孩之宝或者美泰公司。

3）应用盈利解决方案供应商Tapjoy最近宣布将发布一个网页应用商店，支持用户通过下载指定应用程序而赢取自己所玩游戏的虚拟货币。

tapjoy-games(from insidemobileapps.com)

Tapjoy之前就已在苹果应用商店App Store中提供此类服务，但苹果现已禁止这种非自然下载现象，因此Tapjoy选择发布自己的应用商店以避免违反苹果政策。Tapjoy的这项新服务将向iOS用户开放，并可自动监测用户已安装的应用，为其提供相应的下载选项。

4）据gamasutra报道，由于涉及商标侵权问题，Elite Systems延迟了将向iOS平台发布的一款经典8位电脑游戏移植版集合应用《Elite Collection》。

elite_collection(from toucharcade.com)

该应用原计划于10月28日发布，其中含有25款经典的8位电脑游戏的iOS移植版本，包括《M.U.L.E.》、《Stunt Car Racer》和《Archon II》，支持IAP功能以及单独下载模式。

据该公司总经理Steve Wilcox所称，由于其中有款游戏原开发商向其发送了商标侵权投诉，为了避免产生法律纠纷，他们打算先解决这一问题，延迟数周后再发布应用。

Elite Systems去年已发布一款类似应用《ZX Spectrum:Elite Collection》，该应用目前已含150款游戏，在今年三月份已创收15万美元。

5）据games报道，尽管Zynga游戏《Mafia Wars》可能采用等距视角，并采用《CityVille》式的城建风格，但《Mafia Wars Shakedown》这款即将面世的iOS游戏却返回了原来基于文本的模式。

Mafia Wars Shakedown(from games)

玩家在游戏中可选择一个虚拟形象，但却并不能像《Mafia Wars 2》那样为其添加个性化装饰，并使用Goons而非能量来完成任务。玩家可以通过盗取其他玩家的物品来完成相关的收集任务，可以通过列表选择盗窃对象及道具。游戏界面会显示双方的力量对比情况，从而让玩家判断自己的胜算。如果玩家选择的是比自己劣势的对手，那就有望以更少的代价顺利偷窃。

6）IDC最新数据表明，2011年第三季度全球手机销量达3.937亿部，比上一季度增长12.8%，但增速已减缓，主要原因在于人们推迟购买智能手机（尤其是iPhone和黑莓）以及保守的消费心态。美国和欧洲这类成熟的移动市场销量已呈逐年下滑趋势。

分析师Ramon Llamas指出，两年前智能手机市场份额明显处于劣势，但现在其出货量比例已相当有份量，苹果、HTC和RIM等智能手机给整个移动市场带了了深刻的影响。

mobile phone shipments(from mobile-ent)

上图是主要的五大移动设备厂商在第三季度的出货量情况，诺基亚出货量达1.066亿部，占27.1%的份额，但比去年下降3.4%；

三星出货量达8780万部，占22.3%份额，比去年增长23%；

苹果出货量达1710万部，所占份额为4.3%，同比去年增长21.3%。（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）iOS & Android Apps Challenged by Traffic Acquisition Not Discovery

by Peter Farago

Apple and Google have ushered in a new era of mobile computing whose consumer adoption is rivaled only by the PC revolution of the 1980s and the Internet boom of the 1990s.  Since 2007, more than 440 million iOS and Android devices have been activated, with 1 million additional devices across both platforms now activated each day.

On top of this massive and rapidly expanding platform, a software battle is raging.  With very low barriers to entry, and friction-free digital distribution, companies have been feverishly building, shipping and updating applications, intent on capturing and monetizing consumer audiences.  To illustrate this growth, let’s look at the number of available apps in the App Store vs. the Android Market.

This chart is comprised of publicly available data.  Where data wasn’t available for the same month in both markets, we estimated the number of available apps based on interpolation (e.g., approximating a point between two existing data points), or by looking at the growth rate leading up to a specific month.  The number of apps is growing significantly in both markets.  And while the App Store has attracted more apps to date, the Android Market is closing the gap.  Now, let’s turn our attention to total app downloads.

The chart above sums Android Market and App Store downloads per month.  Starting on the left, with January 2010, we show downloads per month every three months, until we reach October 2011.  In October 2011, we estimate over 2.6 billion apps were downloaded.  The number of apps now downloaded is four times greater than this time last year, in October 2010.  With the holiday season under two months away, the 3 billion-mark download per month mark surely will be shattered this December.  Month-over-month, app downloads have been growing at an astounding rate 11.4%.  With app downloads growing swiftly, even faster than the number of apps being made available, let’s now look at app retention.

This chart shows the percent of consumers that continue using an app, since their first use, over 12 months.  At the far left, marked as month “0,” 100% of a consumer cohort begins using an app.  After three months, 24% of them continue using.  After 6 months, this percent shrinks to 14%, and, by 12 months, only 4% are left.   For this analysis, we compiled data from 25 apps downloaded a cumulative 550 million times.（source:flurry）

2）With 60M Monthly Actives, Outfit7 Hints at Powering Distribution For Other Mobile Developers

Kim-Mai Cutler

It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from Outfit7 — the Slovenian company behind those popular talking animal apps — especially after the company switched chief executives.

But the company has given a status update today, saying it crossed 225 million downloads and has 60 million monthly active users. That’s triple the number of monthly actives it had at the beginning of the year and the company’s growing at roughly 20 million downloads per month.

“The second hundred million has actually come twice as fast our first hundred,” said the company’s chairman Narry Singh. (That’s not actually too surprising for any highly ranked developer given that Apple had cumulatively sold 250 million iOS devices into this month, up from 160 million cumulatively sold during its January earnings call. And Android has gotten to 190 million devices activated this month, up from 100 million in May. So with both platforms nearly doubling devices activated or sold in about a year, you’d expect to see acceleration in the pace of downloads for any top-ranked developer.)

The company now has 40 employees with a headquarters in Cyprus, plus offices in Silicon Valley and Ljubljana, Slovenia, where the company was originally founded. Outfit7, like many other independent, mid-size developers, has an unusual story. It was a group of highly-technical search engineers that happened to stumble into creating character apps.

In the beginning of this year, the company harbored ambitions that it could become the next Hasbro or Mattel with beloved characters that it could license out into other mediums like what Finland’s Rovio Mobile has been doing. The company has yet to announce a big merchandising or licensing deal but says that it has some coming soon.

In the meantime, Outfit7 has shied away from taking funding to step on the gas pedal, instead relying on its own organic revenue to feed growth. Its chief executive at the time, Andrej Nabergoj, stepped down and is said to be working on his next company, also in the mobile apps space. The company’s co-founder Samo Login has stepped up in his place.

In a call on Friday, Singh seemed to emphasize that Outfit7 is now looking to capitalize on its large footprint with users.

“We’re at a point of inflection where we’re at a meaningful critical mass,” Singh said. “Distribution on our network is becoming powerful and it could be something that we could provide to third-party developers. That is the significance our milestone.”（source:insidemobileapps）

3）Tapjoy launches its own web marketplace following Apple’s crackdowns on its incentivised downloads

by James Nouch

A new web-based marketplace for app monetisation company Tapjoy launches tomorrow. The service will allow users to gain virtual currency for the games they play by downloading new apps from its ‘offer wall’.

Tapjoy had previously placed its offer walls into games directly, with players offered the chance to gain virtual currency for the games they were playing if they downloaded another title from one of Tapjoy’s advertisers.

Apple took a rather dim view of the practice, and the distorting effect it had on the iOS free charts as players downloaded games for a purpose other than to play them.

This led to a crackdown, with Apple rejecting apps containing Tapjoy’s offer wall. It would seem that Tapjoy’s new web-based marketplace neatly circumvents Apple’s crackdown.

Instead of placing offer walls in apps, Tapjoy places its offers on its web marketplace, which you can access from your iOS device. It’s able to detect which apps are already installed and therefore to offer in-game incentives for players to download apps from Tapjoy’s advertisers.

Apple has already adjusted the way its free charts are compiled, meaning that downloads alone are not enough to hit the top-spot. However, it’ll be interesting to see how the company reacts to Tapjoy’s latest foray into incentivised downloads.（source:pocketgamer）

4） Trademark Issues Hold Up iOS Collection Of 8-Bit Computer Games

by Kyle Orland

Elite Systems has delayed the release of a planned collection of classic 8-bit computer game ports for iOS thanks to a trademark claim placed on one of the included games.

The Elite Collection, originally planned for an October 28 release, will include iOS ports of 25 classic 8-bit computer titles, including classics such as M.U.L.E., Stunt Car Racer and Archon II, both as in-app purchases and as standalone downloads.

But Elite Systems managing director Steve Wilcox said the company has received a trademark complaint regarding one of the included games from a company that had previously provided written clearance for its inclusion.

“Since one of our declared goals for the Elite Collection apps is, ‘to restore some order to the market for 8-bit home computer games,’ we needed some time to check the claim,” he said in a statement.

“At the time of writing, that claim is still being reviewed and we felt it would be inappropriate to release the apps until it had been dealt with.”

The delay, which Wilcox estimates will take “a couple of weeks,” will allow the publisher time to port additional titles before the launch, including the first three Bard’s Tale games and post-apocalyptic RPG Wasteland.

The new collection follows on Elite’s ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection, which was released last year and has since grown to include over 150 titles. That collection had grossed over $150,000 as of March, according to the company. （source:gamasutra）

5）Mafia Wars Shakedown takes the series back to its roots on iOS

by Brandy Shaul

While Mafia Wars 2 may have introduced an isometric view, player avatars and city-building a la CityVille to the Mafia Wars franchise, Zynga’s latest iPhone offering in the series, Mafia Wars Shakedown, does none of that, instead reverting the series back to its “pure” text-based form. While the game hasn’t come out in the US iTunes store as of this writing, we’re here to give you a detailed overview of what to expect once the game launches here.

To start, you will be able to choose an avatar, but this is a simple image-representation of yourself, rather than something that can be customized in-depth as in Mafia Wars 2. From there, you’ll be thrown straight into the mix via a brief tutorial that introduces you to Jobs, Robbing, Goons and more. Instead of energy, here you’ll spend Goons, which are hired thugs that will go out and do your dirty work. In this way, Mafia Wars Shakedown places you in the role of a Don with an already considerable amount of power, with your power only growing as you progress.

Doing jobs is the same process that you’d expect. You’re given a list of jobs that you can complete, all falling under different “bosses.” For instance, your very first boss is in the Bronx district, and goes by the name of Fat Tony. We brought you a look at Fat Tony, the chef, in our look at the game’s trailer earlier today. To be able to attack him, you’ll first need to complete three jobs, each of which requires a specific number of Goons to start, and must be done repeatedly in order to “master” it. Once that’s done, you’ll simply be able to tap on a “Fight” button to see the turn-based battle commence. Weapons fly across the screen and health meters change automatically, with some nice animation effects. While your first fight will be handled alone, you’ll eventually unlock the ability to bring in two members of your Mafia with you to subsequent battles.

As you level up or earn mastery on a specific job (simply do the job enough times to fill the associated meter), you’ll earn extra Goon Points. If you’re familiar with the traditional Mafia Wars setup on Facebook, these bonus Goon Points can be thought of as “Skill Points,” allowing you to assign them to one of three categories: Job, Attack of Defense. Assigning it to Job gives you more “energy” to complete actions, while Attack and Defense make you a more formidable foe when going against bosses, or other real world players.

Speaking of, the Robbery aspect returns here, although it details the Collection feature more often than not. That is, as you work to complete collections in your own game, you can steal collectibles from other players. You’ll be able to choose an unlucky opponent from a list, and can choose which specific item you’d like to steal before attacking. You’re then shown a comparison of your stats, and you can choose how many individual Goons (or energy points) to spend on the attack based on how likely you are to win. The game automatically determines your likelihood of success, and will color-code your options to give you a quick overview of just how many Goons you should spend. Of course, if you’re going against a player of a lower level, you’ll be able to send in less Goons, and vice versa.（source：games）

6）393.7m phones sold in 3Q11

by Tim Green

Growth is slowing, but it’s still 12.8 per cent up on Q2.

According to IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, this was the second-lowest growth rate for the mobile market over the past two years.

It blamed the slump on delayed smartphone purchases (iPhone and BlackBerry especially) and conservative consumer spending last quarter. Mature markets like US and Western Europe actually declined year-over-year.

Needless to say, the market is now all about smartphones.

Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team, said: “Two years ago, smartphones comprised just a small portion of overall shipments among the leading vendors. Today, that proportion has grown considerably, thanks in large part to LG, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson making Android smartphones a priority.

“At the same time, the growing presence of companies focused exclusively on the smartphone market – Apple, HTC, and RIM – also demonstrate the impact that smartphones have had on the mobile phone market as a whole.”

Read more on the research here.

And check out this table to see how the OEMs are doing.（source:mobile-ent）