1）据Facebook提交的S-1文件显示，Facebook已有8.45亿活跃注册用户，4.83亿每日活跃用户，以及4.25亿移动用户。但Facebook同时还承认，移动领域并未给Facebook直接创造多少收益，并且Facebook能否在该领域成功盈利也仍然是个未知数。

facebook-mobile-app(from latestwebcrunch.com)

Facebook移动产品的使用率正在增长，但Facebook并未在移动平台展示广告，若Facebook不能找到通过移动用户盈利的有效方法，那么其营收及财报成绩将受到消极影响。

2）IDC最新报告指出，苹果已成为仅次于诺基亚和三星的全球第三大手机设备制造商，2011年第四季度全球手机市场规模增长6.1%，但增幅低于第三季度（游戏邦注：第三季度比去年同期增长9.3%），功能性手机正在失势。

mobile-vendors(from IDC)

第四季度诺基亚手机出货量共达1.135亿部，三星则是9760万部，苹果手机出货量为3700万部，第四名LG为1770万部，第五名中兴通讯为1710万部。

3）迪士尼近日宣布收购Ignition Entertainment母公司UTV Software Communications，以便扩大在印度娱乐领域的影响力。

walt-disney(from bikyamasr.com)

去年已有报道称迪士尼有意收购UTV（游戏邦注：当时迪士尼已掌握该公司50.4%的股权），现在迪士尼还将获得UTV旗下社交游戏工作室Indiagames。

4）Capcom最近公布的财报显示，2011年第四季度公司手机游戏业务营收比去年同期增长68%，达到40亿日元（约5260万美元），利润（或净收益）几乎同比增长3倍，达到14亿日元（约1790万美元）。

Capcom旗下手机及社交游戏工作室Beeline Interactive目前已收获4600万次下载量，在过去三个月中的MAU增长30%（部分程度上得益于苹果该季度售出的3700多万部iPhone）。Capcom预计Beeline本季度将创收7880万美元，净收益达2500万美元。

business segments(from Capcom)

business segments (from Capcom)

从总体上看，Capcom净销售额（包括街机和视频游戏收益）为503亿日元（约6.6亿美元），同比下滑29%；净收益为4260万美元，下降了52.6%。Capcom与EA等其他主流视频游戏公司一样，正经历掌机业务持续失势，手机游戏项目不断发展的过程。

5）谷歌最近推出了一项扫描服务Bouncer，旨在清除Android Market中的恶意应用程序，以助谷歌减少应用商店潜在的恶意下载行为。

android security(from androidcommunity.com)

该系统会分析Android Market中的新旧应用程序以及开发商帐号，扫描其中隐藏的流氓软件、间谍软件、木马程序和监视软件，同时会浏览这些应用程序的云基础设备，查看其在Android设备上的运行方式。

6）据Industry Gamers报道，KISS乐队创始人Gene Simmons最近表示，Hello Kitty是全球最有影响力的品牌之一，现在有90多个已经出现了Kiss Hello Kitty产品，他还正与Rovio商谈开发一款融合Kiss与《愤怒的小鸟》品牌的新游戏。

angry-bird-KISS brand(from games)

（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）Facebook: we have no idea how to monetise mobile

by Tim Green

IPO filing says: “We do not directly generate any meaningful revenue from mobile, and our ability to do so successfully is unproven.”

Facebook has filed its S-1 with the Securities Exchange Commission to set up what will be one of the most eagerly-awaited public floats ever – one that could raise $5bn.

Within that filing were some top line stats on the firm’s current performance. They include the fact that Facebook made $3.71 billion in revenue in 2011, almost twice what it grossed in 2010.

Advertising accounted for 85 per cent of its revenue last year, with Zynga alone chipping in for 12 per cent of its revenues overall.

It also disclosed 845 million active registered users, of which 483 million are described as “daily active users” and 425 million are mobile users.

In filings of this type, firms are required to spell out the risks and shortcomings in their operations and in the market as a whole.

Nevertheless, it’s still pretty sobering to read in Facebook’s own words of its uncertainty around monetising the mobile channel.

The firm admits that it hasn’t worked out how to make advertising work on the channel, and that its activities are, to a degree, controlled by third parties.

Here’s what it says: “Growth in use of Facebook through our mobile products, where we do not currently display ads, as a substitute for use on personal computers may negatively affect our revenue and financial results.

“We anticipate that the rate of growth in mobile users will continue to exceed the growth rate of our overall MAUs for the foreseeable future, in part due to our focus on developing mobile products to encourage mobile usage of Facebook.

“Although the substantial majority of our mobile users also access and engage with Facebook on personal computers where we display advertising, our users could decide to increasingly access our products primarily through mobile devices.

“We do not currently directly generate any meaningful revenue from the use of Facebook mobile products, and our ability to do so successfully is unproven.

“Accordingly, if users continue to increasingly access Facebook mobile products as a substitute for access through personal computers, and if we are unable to successfully implement monetization strategies for our mobile users, our revenue and financial results may be negatively affected.”

Facebook also concedes that its destiny is somewhat out of its own hands and in those of OEMs and OS makers.

It adds: “We are dependent on the interoperability of Facebook with popular mobile operating systems that we do not control, such as Android and iOS, and any changes in such systems that degrade our products’ functionality or give preferential treatment to competitive products could adversely affect Facebook usage on mobile devices.”（source:mobile-ent）

2）IDC: Apple now the world’s third-largest phone manufacturer

Sean Ludwig

Apple has moved up two spots in the world phone manufacturer rankings, with LG and ZTE dropping down a rank and Nokia and Samsung taking the top two slots, according to new IDC research.

IDC’s latest report on the state of the worldwide phone market says it grew by 6.1 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2011. But that growth is actually quite a bit weaker than the 9.3 percent year-over-year gain for Q3, indicating that feature phones are falling out of favor fast.

“The mobile phone market exhibited unusually low growth last quarter, which shows it is not immune to weaker macroeconomic conditions worldwide,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC, in a statement. “The introduction of high-growth products such as the iPhone 4S, which shipped in the fourth quarter, bolstered smartphone growth. Yet overall market growth fell to its lowest point since Q3 2009 when the global economic recession was in full bloom.”

The most interesting movement to happen this quarter was Apple blowing past LG and ZTE in shipments thanks to huge demand for the iPhone 4S, which is available in more than 90 countries. Apple now has the third place slot with a record-breaking 37 million iPhones moved in the fourth quarter. Apple is also now the largest smartphone maker in the world.

First place in total phone shipments is still Nokia, which has retained that position for some time by selling massive amounts of “dumb” feature phones. Nokia recently introduced several new Windows Phone smartphones like the Lumia 900, showing off a new direction for the company, which hopes to become a major smartphone player again. Nokia shipped 113.5 million phones total.

Second place went to Samsung, which offers a blend of powerful Android phones and cheap feature phones. Samsung was notable for breaking the 90 million phone mark for the first time in a single quarter and breaking the 300 million mark for the first time in a single year for 2011. The company shipped 97.6 million phones in the fourth quarter.

Rounding out the top five are LG and ZTE in fourth and fifth place, both dropping a slot because of Apple’s surge. LG’s phone shipments dropped a staggering amount, going from shipping 30.6 million phones in Q4 2010 to shipping 17.7 million in Q4 2011, a 42 percent decline. Chinese manufacturer ZTE boosted shipments 8.9 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter with the shipping of 17.1 million phones.（source:venturebeat）

3）Disney acquires Ignition Entertainment parent company UTV

by Mike Rose

Disney has announced the acquisition of Ignition parent company UTV Software Communications, as a means of expanding its entertainment reach in India.

Reports were circulating last year that Disney was looking to buy out India-based UTV, given that it held around 50.4 percent of the equity share capital for the company. UTV houses Ignition Entertainment, which has published the likes of Deadly Premonition and The King of Fighters XII.

Disney has now stated that it will acquire a controlling interest in UTV through a subsidiary, and delist the UTV shares from the stock market, allowing it to integrate the company’s current operations into its own.

As part of the acquisition, Disney will also gain UTV’s Indiagames mobile gaming portfolio. Indiagames is one of the leading mobile games companies in India.

Ronnie Screwvala, UTV CEO and now managing director of Disney India, said, “In combining the creative capabilities of each company we will integrate a large stable of vibrant brands and franchises in the branded entertainment space.”

“With the middle class expected to grow from 50 million to more than 500 million people by 2025, this market offers huge potential for us to deliver quality branded entertainment to consumers.” （source:gamasutra）

4）Beeline, Capcom’s mobile unit, sees revenues soar 68% to $52.6 million last quarter

Kim-Mai Cutler、、Buoyed by hits like Snoopy’s Street Fair and growth in the local Japanese market, Capcom’s mobile revenue climbed 68 percent year-over-year to 4 billion yen ($52.6 million) in the hoilday quarter. Profit or net income was up almost threefold year-over-year at 1.4 billion yen ($17.9 million).

The Tokyo-based company’s mobile unit has done well for itself by licensing out well-known brands and building casual, freemium mobile games around them. It plans to leverage another family-friendly brand this quarter with the launch of Shrek’s Fairytale Kingdom. Capcom also said a Japanese mobile title, Monhan Tankenki Maboroshi no Shima did well on the GREE platform along with another game, Resident Evil: Outbreak Survive.

Capcom’s mobile and social gaming studio Beeline Interactive has now seen 46 million cumulative downloads. Monthly active users have also grown by 30 percent over the last three months, likely due to Apple’s strong quarterly sales of more than 37 million iPhones.

This quarter, Capcom says it expects to see $25 million in net income on $78.8 million in revenue from its Beeline unit. At that annualized runrate, we’re seeing a business that generates more than $300 million in revenue a year. Yesterday we saw that Gameloft’s smartphone and tablet games produced $25.4 million in revenue for the company. Both of these figures underscore remarkable growth for the entire mobile gaming industry.

Mobile was one of the brightest spots in what was otherwise a difficult year for Capcom. Overall net sales, including arcade and video game revenues, were down 29 percent to 50.3 billion yen ($660 million). Net income declined 52.6 percent to $42.6 million as sales of video games declined. During the same quarter a year ago, Capcom said it released a number of flagship titles for consoles which it didn’t do this holiday period.

At the same time Capcom is confronting what every other major video game maker is seeing — the rapid shift away from handheld gaming devices to smartphones. Yesterday, Electronic Arts’ earnings revealed that its Nintendo DS business has fallen by more than two-thirds in the last year to $15 million last quarter from $49 million a year earlier.

Capcom said in its statement today: “The trend of structural change washes over the video game industry, with the rapid growth of affordable and easily accessible social games attributable to the rise of mobile phones and smart phone.”（source:insidemobileapps）

5）Android Market employs a Bouncer to keep malware out

By Ryan Kim

Google is trying to addressing growing concerns about malware in Android Market with the formal unveiling of a scanning service called Bouncer that will attempt to weed out bad apps in its marketplace. The service has been apparently been running for some time now and has helped Google reduce the number of potentially-malicious downloads by 40 percent from the first half of 2011 to the second half.

The system works by analyzing new and existing applications in Android Market and also developer accounts. Bouncer scans for known malware, spyware and trojans and monitors for suspect behavior that could indicate a red flag. Google also runs each app through its cloud infrastructure to see how it will run on an Android device. And Google also analyzes new developer accounts to keep out repeat offenders.

Google’s Hiroshi Lockheimer, VP of Engineering, Android, said it’s impossible to prevent all malicious apps from entering Android Market but the company is making significant progress in decreasing the number of bad apps being downloaded. Said Lockheimer:

No security approach is foolproof, and added scrutiny can often lead to important improvements. Our systems are getting better at detecting and eliminating malware every day, and we continue to invite the community to work with us to keep Android safe.

Google is attempting to make Android Market safer without imposing more burdens on developers. That means developers can still upload away and consumers can get the apps immediately, unlike Apple’s App Store, which reviews and approves each app, creating delays. It’s a tight balance because Google has been increasingly called out for malware apps that make it into its store. Working in the background allows Google to apply a technology solution that should require less manpower. And it can still encourage developers to keep iterating and developing for Android without enforcing time-consuming reviews.

But while this may cut down on the overall number of malicious apps, it only takes one or two big attacks to really undermine Android’s reputation here. And that may be enough to still fuel the work of companies like Lookout and Symantec, which are getting mileage out of harping on Android’s security concerns. Of bigger concern is the fact that there’s still not much disincentive for bad actors to introduce malware into Android Market. Google will boot out offenders and work to prevent their return but with just a threat of losing a $25 developer registration fee, the penalties for getting caught may not keep bad developers out. But at the very least Google is addressing the issue further and seems to understand that it’s only going to become more of a target as it racks up app downloads, which are now up to 11 billion.（source:gigaom）

6）Gene Simmons says a KISS Angry Birds game is coming

Sebastian Haley

KISS frontman Gene Simmons has revealed that he’s in talks with Rovio to develop a KISS/Angry Birds game.

In what specific capacity the two brands will mash up is unclear, as Simmons drops the bombshell almost flippantly during an interview with Industry Gamers.

“So Hello Kitty is one of the biggest brands on planet Earth,” said Simmons. “Now there’s KISS Hello Kitty, which we’ve already launched in 90 countries. We’re talking with Angry Birds, KISS and Angry Birds, which will become a deal. The KISS and the Archie world have now teamed up and the first issues of KISS Archie comic books hits the world this month. KISS golf courses are starting in Las Vegas right across from the Hard Rock.”

Last year at the MIPCOM convention in France, Simmons touted that there are now over three thousand KISS-branded products worldwide. “Everything from KISS condoms to KISS caskets. We’ll get you coming and we’ll get you going.”

GamesBeat has reached out to both Rovio and KISS’ publicist for clarification. KISS has previously been featured in various music rhythm games, as well as their own first-person shooter, KISS Psycho Circus.（source:venturebeat）