1）分析公司Distimo最新数据显示，Android Market活跃应用数量已达40万款（在2011年4月和8月分别达到20万和30万款活跃应用），苹果iPhone App Store仅历时22个月实现这一目标，而Android Market则历时31个月才实现同个目标，但自8月份以来增速明显上升。

android-overview-active(from Distimo)

免费应用在Android Market中占比68%，2011年4月份的这一数据则是60%；该应用商店现有10万名活跃发行商，平均每个开发商发布4.1款应用，略低于一年前的同一数据。

android-market-vs-app-store-400k-apps(from distimo)

2）移动分析公司Flurry最近报告表明，用户在2011年圣诞假期安装的Android、iOS应用超过12亿款，首次创造了逾10亿次的单周下载记录。

holiday-downloads(from Flurry)

从12月25日至31日，iOS和Android应用下载量比平日每周平均7.5亿次下载量增加了60%以上，圣诞节当天是下载最高峰，Android和iOS应用下载量在当天达2.42亿次。

downloads by country(from Flurry)

报告显示，美国创造了5.09亿次的圣诞下载量，中国同期下载量则是9900万次（游戏邦注：从Android设备激活量来看，中国还是12月23至26日位于第九名的市场）。从总体来看，英国、加拿大、德国、墨西哥等国下载量均超过日本等非基督教国家。

Flurry统计圣诞至新年期间的Android和iOS设备激活量超过2000万部，圣诞节当天就达到680万部。

3）据AllThingsD报道，Rovio高管Ville Heijari近日宣布《愤怒的小鸟》在12月25日当天的iOS和Android下载量达650万次，远超2010年圣诞节当天的200万次下载量。

angry-birds-deco(from ubergizmo.com)

如果按照Flurry所统计的2011年2.42亿次的圣诞下载量来算，《愤怒的小鸟》下载量占比达2.7%。

4）据IBM统计，2011圣诞节期间的网购交易量同比去年增长16.4%，其中通过移动设备达成的网购交易量同比攀升170%；iPad是最广泛使用的网购移动设备，通过该设备达成的交易量占比7%。

5）据The Daily报道，有匿名知情者透露任天堂掌机设备Wii U或将推出自己的应用商店，这一点有别于3DS、Wii设备的eShop、Wii Shop这两个在线商店，它将提供更多“轻量型”的可下载应用程序。

wii-u-nintendo(from games)

知情人表示，这些应用仅限运行于Wii U的6.2英寸控制器，但并未详述这个应用商店将使用积分系统还是其他形式发售应用软件。

6）手机游戏公司Ngmoco瑞典工作室总经理Ben Cousins最近宣布从EA工作室DICE聘请三名新成员Malte Hildingsson、Torbjorn Lædre和Wille Wintertidh，这三者将分别担任该工作室高级程序员、高级美术师。

前Crytek成员Senta Jakobsen、Tony Davis和Vesselin Efremov也于不久前加入了该工作室团队。

7）据DigiTimes报道，苹果将发布两款iPad 3，其中一者拥有2048 X 1536像素的屏幕，另一者采用1024 X 768像素的屏幕。这两者都将采用A6芯片，前者售价499美元，而另一款“iPad 2.5”起始价为399美元。

ipad-3(from howfreetips.com)

观察者推测这种现象表明苹果有可能将iPad 2降价至349或299美元以对抗亚马逊Kindle Fire、PlayBook等平价平板电脑的竞争。（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）Google Android Market Tops 400,000 ApplicationsTweet Posted on January 3, 2012 by Tiuri van Agten

Google Android Market gave itself a nice new year’s present last weekend. The total number of active applications worldwide in the Android Market reached the 400,000 milestone. Android Market has topped the 200K and 300K available apps milestones in April and August 2011 respectively.

The main contributors to reach this milestone are free applications. Roughly, 2/3 of the available applications are free in Android Market. The percentage of free applications has steadily grown month over month from 60% in April 2011 to 68% free content at the end of 2011. One of the reason behind this increase in free content is the success of the freemium business model, which is explained in more detail in our annual overview.

Google Android Market needed two more months in order to reach this landmark compared to the Apple App Store for iPhone, which hit the 400K available apps in June 2011. Interesting to see is that Android Market has taken 31 months to reach the 200,000 milestone, while Apple only needed 22 months to do this for iPhone apps. However, Android Market needed only four more months to pass the 300.000 milestone, while the App Store for iPhone needed eight more months after Apple hits the 200,000 milestone. Moreover, the gap between the 300K and 400K milestone is also smaller for the Android Market than for the Apple App Store for iPhone, 4 and 7 months respectively.

In addition, Google Android Market has nearly passed a second milestone as well. Android Market has almost more than 100K publishers active in its application store. In the Android Market, each developer publishes 4.1 applications on average, while  developers published nearly five apps on average a year ago.

The milestone  reached by Google Android Market relates to applications that are currently active in the store.  Many applications have been removed by Google or developers, due to infringement of copyright for example.（source:distimo）

2）Downloads finally break the 1 billion per week barrier with 1.2 billion apps downloaded over the holidays

Kathleen De Vere

2011 ended with a historic first for app developers — downloads surpassed the one billion per week mark for the first time as consumers installed more than 1.2 billion Android and iOS apps over the holidays.

The week between December 25 and 31, defined by analytics company Flurry as “holiday power week,” is the busiest time of the year for app downloads. During this year’s holiday power week, iOS and Android app downloads increased by more than 60 percent over the pre-holiday average of approximately 750 million downloads per week.  Unsurprisingly, the busiest day of the week for downloads was this year’s record breaking Christmas Day, when consumers downloaded more than 242 million Android and iOS apps.

According to Flurry, the US accounted for 509 million of the holiday week downloads, but China, the world’s second biggest market, was close behind with 99 million downloads. China may not celebrate Christmas as widely as the other countries Flurry reviewed, but it appears Chinese consumers still used the holiday as an excuse to give and receive — the country was the ninth fastest growing in the world for Android activations between December 23 and 26. Overall Christian countries like the UK, Canada, Germany and Mexico saw higher relative downloads to their install base than non-Christian countries like Japan.

The boom in downloads was also paired with a record breaking week for new device activations. Flurry estimates that more than 20 million iOS and Android devices were activated between Christmas and New Years, 6.8 million of them on Christmas Day alone.

While this was the first time consumers downloaded more than 1 billion apps in a single week, Flurry is predicting downloads will hit that mark far more frequently in 2012 as device adoption continues to increase.（source:insidemobileapps）

3）Angry Birds accounted for 2.7% of Christmas Day app downloads on iOS and Android – 6.5 million

by Jon Jordan

According to Flurry, a lot of people downloaded apps and games over the holiday week.

And according to Rovio, quite a lot of people downloaded Angry Birds.

Talking to AllThingsD, its marketing manager Ville Heijari revealed 6.5 million of the various games were downloaded for iOS and Android on 25 December alone.

This is up from around two million downloaded on Christmas Day 2010.

Flurry reckoned total downloads on that day were 242 million, which – via some basic maths – means Angry Birds accounted for 2.7 percent of the total.

Still, the focus for Rovio is 2012, with the company developing a number of new games including what’s expected to be a free-to-play social experience.（source:pocketgamer）   http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/Rovio+news/news.asp?c=36546

4）Christmas Day Boosts Mobile Shopping – Christmas Day was a busy day for shoppers according to IBM. The volume of online shopping conducted on the holiday jumped 16.4 percent year-on-year, with mobile device purchases rising more than 170 percent year-on-year. The most popular mobile device used to make online purchases was the iPad, accounting for 7 percent of the holiday sales.（source:insidemobileapps）

5）Nintendo’s Wii U will have an app store (just like the iPad?) [Report]

by Joe Osborne

If the early comparisons between Apple’s tablet and the upcoming Nintendo console were unfounded before, the next rumor surrounding the Wii U might all but confirm them. That is, if it turns out to be true. The Daily reports, citing a nameless source, that Nintendo’s successor to the wildly successful Wii console will have an app store. So, how is that different from now?

According to The Daily, the app store in the Wii U will be different from the online shops offered within its existing 3DS and Wii consoles–the eShop and Wii Shop, respectively–in that it will provide more than just “light” apps. This app store will tout similar software to what players can download on, say, their Xbox 360, like MLB.TV (which is name-dropped specifically).

Furthermore, The Daily’s source said that apps will be offered for use exclusively with the Wii U’s 6.2-inch tablet-like controller. The Daily’s Matt Hickey paints a picture of players checking their email, browsing the web and later getting some games in on the controller. However, it’s unknown whether this supposed app store will sell its software using a points system or otherwise.

What we do know for sure about the mysterious Wii U is that it will be social. Perhaps this means that players will be able to access services like Twitter, Facebook and Google+ using dedicated apps downloaded from this app store. We’ll see at E3 2012.（source:games）

6）Ngmoco Sweden hires staffers from Battlefield studio DICE

by Mike Rose

The Sweden-based branch of mobile games company Ngmoco continues to grow in staff numbers, as general manager Ben Cousins revealed this week three hires from EA’s Battlefield studio DICE.

Cousins formed the new Ngmoco studio last year, with a focus on creating free-to-play games for DeNA’s Mobage social gaming platform, as well as titles for a global audience.

He revealed this week via Twitter that Malte Hildingsson, Wille Wintertidh and Torbjorn Lædre, all former EA DICE employees, have now joined his team.

Hildingsson (pictured) previously worked on Battlefield 3, Need For Speed: The Run, BulletStorm Mirror’s Edge, and has joined as senior programmer, while Wintertidh, who also worked on Mirror’s Edge, is now Ngmoco’s senior artist.

Finally, Lædre is now the studio’s senior programmer. He had previously worked on Battlefield 3, Far Cry 2 and Battlefield 2.

This latest group of hirings follows numerous high-profile hires from Crysis studio Crytek. Ngmoco brought on former Crytek director Senta Jakobsen to help Cousins lead the studio, and also hired former Crytek staffers Tony Davis and Vesselin Efremov. （source:gamasutra）

7）Apple rumoured to be segmenting iPad family with prices starting from $299

by Jon Jordan

Another year, another set of rumours about iPad 3.

According to DigiTimes, Apple could be working on an iPod-like family pricing strategy for the tablet to ward off competition from lower priced tablets such as Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire.

The thinking goes it will release two types of iPad 3; one with a retina resolution 2048×1536 pixel screen and one with a standard 1024×768 pixel screen.

Both would use the new A6 chip, but the different functionality would enable Apple to split pricing, with the premier version starting at $499, while the ‘iPad 2.5′ could start from say, $399.

The third place

And assuming production of iPad 2 continues, this means Apple could then drop the price of such legacy wi-fi hardware to $349 or even $299 to soak up the demand for its tablets that, in a recessionary market, can’t handle the current $499 price.

Of course, this is fairly subjective analysis, but the success of Kindle Fire, combined with moves from other companies – such as RIM which is now offering its PlayBook tablets for $299 in the US – suggests that a sub-$400 play would make sense for Apple.

After all, it currently has $45 billion slouching around in terms of cash and other liquid assets.（source:pocketgamer）