1）应用商店分析公司App Annie最近报告指出，在媒体热炒一时的应用营收表现未必超过发展缓慢但较为稳定的应用（即那些从未跻身营收榜单前25名的应用）。

稳定发展的“长期型”游戏平均收益为92万美元，而“短期型”游戏平均收益则是54.9万美元。顶级长期游戏收益甚至可以达到390万美元，顶级短期游戏收益则是140万美元（游戏邦注：App Annie对“长期型”游戏的定义是位居美国App Store营收榜单前26-125名长达12个月的游戏，而“短期型”游戏则指位居营收榜单前25名最多三个月的游戏）。

12-months-total-revenue-after-lauch-app-average1(from App Annie)

12-months-total-revenue-after-lauch-for-the-top-app1(from App Annie)

不过观察者认为，App Annie这项调查样本数量比较有限，总共仅分析了28款跻身营收榜单前列的长期和短期型游戏，因此其调查结果不够全面。在14款长期型游戏和14款短期型游戏中，均有8者属于免费产品。长期型游戏平均售价为3.99美元，而短期游戏平均售价为4.08美元。最昂贵的长期游戏售价为9.99美元，短期游戏最高价者为6.99美元。

category-composition-of-short-termers(from App Annie)

category-composition-of-long-termers1(from App Annie)

长期游戏多属于策略游戏（占比达29%），而短期游戏则以动作游戏为主导（占比达43%），模拟游戏在长短期游戏中都有较高人气（在短期游戏中占比36%，在长期游戏中占比22%）。另外需要注意的是，这项调查结果并不意味着动作游戏更容易迅速蹿红，只能说明此类游戏机制的粘性比其他手机游戏更高。

2）Distimo最近报告发现，由于转向免费增值模式，苹果App Store营收榜单前100名应用总体收益增长了3倍，但更严峻的竞争形势导致每款应用平均下载量降至2010年以来的最低水平。

in-app adoption(from Distimo)

报告指出IAP模式在游戏产品中最为普遍，IAP在所有免费游戏中的普及率已达21%。在前300名免费热门游戏中，有77%游戏都采用了IAP模式。Distimo还发现在过去两年中，采用IAP模式的免费应用在App Store中所占收益已由原来的7%增长至68%。

与此同时，前200名热门付费应用在过去两年的下载量虽然增长13%，但平均售价却下降了16%；前200名热门付费应用所创造的日均收益在过去两年中下降了5%。

growth in downloads and revenue(from Distimo)

前200名热门免费应用日均下载量虽然在过去两年中已从770万次增长至1680万次，但每款应用日均下载量却逊于两年前的水平。

Distimo报告还指出，虽然美国是iPhone发布以来最大的应用市场，但在过去两年中其市场影响力已有所下降。从前200名热门免费应用下载量来看，前十大市场分别为美国、中国、日本、英国、德国、法国、加拿大、意大利、澳大利亚和韩国。

3）Strategy Analytics最近报告显示，2012年第二季度全球智能手机出货量达1.46亿部，增幅为32%，但这却是自2009年第三季度以来智能手机行业的最低增幅。

报告认为动荡的全球经济形势，智能手机市场的相对饱和，一些苹果粉丝为iPhone 5而推迟购买计划等均是该季度智能手机出货量发展减缓的主要原因。

smartphone-shipments-q2-2012(from Strategy Analytics)

三星和苹果已占据全球智能手机一半以上出货量，这两者去年同期所占份额则是三分之一。诺基亚智能手机市场份额则从去年的15%降至7%左右。

4）comScore最近报告指出，有半数以上在今年4月购买新移动设备的功能性手机用户选择的是智能手机。在这些转向智能手机的用户中，61.5%用户选择Android设备，25.2%选择苹果设备，7.1%选择微软手机设备。

5）据insidemobileapps报道，《Top Girl》开发商Crowdstar最近报告称自从将业务重心转向手机游戏之后，公司新游戏年收益增幅达200%。

6）据mobile-ent报道，Facebook日前公布财报称第二季度收益为12亿美元，净亏损达1.57亿美元（尽管如此，Facebook股票还是下跌11%，降至每股24美元）。

Facebook-Mobile(from engagesciences.com)

截止6月30日，Facebook移动端的月活跃用户为5.43亿，同比去年增长67%。这意味着在9.55亿的Facebook月活跃用户（同比去年增长29%）中，每10人中就有6人来自移动设备。

目前Facebook有84%收益来自广告业务，其首席执行官Mark Zuckerberg表示，截止6月底，News Feed中的赞助广告业务每日收益超过100万美元，其中有半数来自移动平台。

7）据Techcrunch报道，初创企业VINCI日前宣布推出一个专为儿童用户供应数字内容及应用的平台VINCI Kids Library（游戏邦注：该公司原先针对儿童用户开发了VINCI早期教育系统及VINCI平板电脑）。

‌VINCI(from techcrunch)

VINCI Kids Library刚上线时提供了互动故事、教育类游戏等500多款应用，预计到年底将推出1000多款应用。该平台内容专为18个月至9岁用户设计，其目标是成为全球最大的儿童数字内容库，并且承诺绝不含有任何广告、成人内容、暴力元素以及IAP功能，以便为儿童用户创造安全的数字学习环境。

该公司还邀请Android开发者针对Kids Library创造内容，开发者可从中分成75%的收益。（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）Slow And Steady Wins The Race, Too: Mobile Gaming Study Looks At Earning Potential In Under-Hyped Games

Sarah Perez

App store analytics firm App Annie released a report on mobile gaming this week, which focused on the earnings potential of what it defined as “long-term” versus “short-term” games.

That is to say, it found that mobile app superstars with media buzz were not necessarily outperforming the slow and steady games that flew under the radar  – meaning, those that never cracked the top 25 grossing ranking, for example. Long-term games earned an average of $920,000 versus $549,000 for short-term games, App Annie says. And the top-earning long-term game earned $3.9 million versus $1.4 million for short-term.

For starters, App Annie classified a “long-term” game as one in the U.S. Apple App Store that spent 12 months or more in the Top 26-125 Grossing ranking by revenue. A “short-term” game, meanwhile is one that spent three months or less in the Top 25 Grossing ranking.

But this study doesn’t quite work for me. And here’s why: to begin with, the sample size was amazingly small. 14 of highest-grossing apps were analyzed under both long and short-term. So 28, altogether. Some examples of long-term games included “Cartoon Wars 2 Heroes,” “The Sims 3,” “Cut the Rope,” “Gun Bros.,” and some of the short-term games were “Global War,” “Need for Speed Hot Pursuit,” “Spider-Man Total Mayhem,” and “Stick Stunt Biker.” To be fair, App Annie contents that, at face value, 28 apps out of 125 doesn’t seem to imply a comprehensive sample, but the qualifiers regarding time spent in both the second tier and first tier (without any crossover) eliminates a good portion of the eligible apps for analysis. So App Annie says the sample is “representative,” if not comprehensive.

In this study, 8 of the 14 games in each category were free. Long-term games had an average selling price of $3.99 and short-term games had an average price of $4.08. The most expensive long-term game was $9.99 versus $6.99 for short-term. The long-term category was also dominated by strategy games, while action dominated the short-term game category. Simulation games were popular in both categories.

App Annie then concludes there’s a viable success strategy in creating a solid game that people play over and over, and that remains popular for a long period of time, even if lower in the charts. This, as opposed to being briefly popular and going out in a flash. Citing data from mobiThinking, App Annie noted that 1 in 4 mobile apps are downloaded, used once, and then deleted. Mobile games, like apps, often get played with, then removed when the fun and/or buzz wears off.

Frankly, though, the conclusion regarding financial success is a bit obvious. If you take a game that’s been #50 for a year, compare it with a game that’s been #10 for 3 months, for example, YEAH, IT CAN EARN MORE. But maybe some people need charts and graphs to get that?

Ouriel Ohayon of Appsfire notes that short-term hits are often due to big marketing pushes that didn’t translate into stickiness and revenues. However, he adds, some hits are meant to be short-term hits. They are designed with a short-term life cycle in mind – like a seasonal version of Angry Birds, for example. This study doesn’t seem to consider that, he says after taking a look. That’s the same sort of feedback we heard all around from others, too.

Another problem with study’s conclusion, is that it’s not as simple as saying that action games are good for a quick buck. There may just be specific mobile game genres where the industry has figured out the game mechanics of engagement better than others.（source:techcrunch）

2）Distimo: the popularity of free-to-play has spiked app revenues, but not app downloads

Emanuel Maiberg

The shift to the free-to-play model has tripled the total revenue generated by the 100 highest grossing apps in the Apple App Store, but intense competition has pushed the average number of daily downloads an app will receive to their lowest level since 2010, says Distimo.

Unsurprisingly, Distmo’s latest report found the the shift to in-app purchases has been spearheaded by games, 21 percent of all free games now feature in-app purchases. When looking solely at highly popular games the number rises even higher — 77 percent of the top 300 most popular free games feature in-app purchases.  Distimo also found that over the past two years, the proportion of total iTunes App Store revenues generated by free apps featuring in-app purchases has increased from seven to 68 percent.

While the last two years have been very good for free apps and apps that monetize through in-app purchases, things have not gone nearly so well for paid apps. Although the volume of downloads for the top 200 most popular paid applications has increased by 13 percent over the last two years, the average selling price of a paid app declined by 16 percent. Distimo found the daily revenue generated by the top 200 most popular paid applications has actually decreased by five percent over the past two years.

Although the daily volume of free app downloads has also increased over the past two years, climbing from 7.7 million to 16.8 million among the top 200 most popular free apps, increased competition has meant each app sees fewer downloads than it did two years ago. In June 2010, the number of downloads among the top 200 most popular applications per available app was 15.4 downloads. That number has since fallen to 8.4 downloads, a decline of 45.4 percent.

Another key finding in the report is that while the Unites States has been the largest market for the iPhone since launch, it has become less a significant market over the past two years.

The top 10 largest countries for downloads of the top 200 most popular free applications are the United States, China, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Australia and South Korea.

Overall, Distimo’s report confirms what developers should already know from reading our previous coverage: In-app purchases are almost without exception the most profitable business model for a mobile app, but increasing competition means developers should strategize for other countries like China, which is already the second largest market in terms of free downloads.（source:insidemobileapps）

3）Smartphone shipment growth slows to 32 per cent in Q2

by Mike Shaw

Industry’s slowest growth rate for nearly three years.

Research from Strategy Analytics says that worldwide shipments of smartphones grew 32 per cent in Q2 2012, reaching 146 million units.

However, despite the increase, this was the smartphone industry’s slowest growth rate since Q3 2009.

Alex Spektor, associate director at Strategy Analytics, said: “A volatile global economy, maturing penetration of smartphones among contract mobile subscribers, and some Apple fans holding off purchases in anticipation of a new iPhone 5 model later this year were among the main causes of the slowdown.”

Samsung and Apple combined now account for more than half of all smartphones shipped globally, up from about one third last year.

Neil Shah, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics, said: “The growth of Samsung and Apple has come partly at the expense of Nokia, whose global smartphone marketshare has halved from 15 per cent to seven per cent over the past year.（source:mobile-ent）

4）Feature phone users switching to smartphones – Almost half of all feature phone users who acquired a new device in April opted to get a smartphone instead of another feature phone, reports ComScore. Among those who made the switch, 61.5 percent of consumers chose Android devices, 25.2 percent chose Apple devices and 7.1 percent opted for Microsoft smartphones.（source:insidemobileapps）

5）Crowdstar reports 200% annual revenue growth — Top Girl developer Crowdstar is reporting since it switched its focus to developing mobile games, the company has seen a 200 percent annual increase in new game revenues.（source:insidemobileapps）

6）Facebook has 543m mobile users

by Tim Green

Says its making roughly $500,000 a day from mobile ads.

The stat came in the company’s Q2 financials, which showed Facebook meeting expectations with revenues of $1.2bn and a net loss of $157m.

Despite this, shares fell 11 per cent to $24. That’s almost half their launch price.

Of course, mobile usage is still the driver of much of Facebook’s growth. Mobile MAUs were 543 million as of June 30th, 2012, an increase of 67 per cent year on year.

This represents around six in ten of the firm’s 955m total monthly active users, which was up 29 per cent year-on-year.

In the past, Facebook has conceded the difficulty of making money from mobile – a platform on which advertising can appear intrusive. The firm says 84 per cent of its total revenue comes from advertising at present.

Facebook has introduced ‘Sponsored Stories’ in the mobile News Feed, and bought Instagram to beef up its mobile presence. It also purchased Face.com, whose facial recognition software may improve its ability to track and monetise individual users, privacy permitting.

And Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is insistent that the firm is succeeding in making mobile a profit centre.

He told investors: “By the end of June, Sponsored Stories in News Feed was at a run rate of over $1 million per day in revenue, and about half of that is coming from mobile.（source:mobile-ent）

7）VINCI Launches First Kid-Focused App Library, Woos Developers With 75% Rev Share

Rip Empson

Like many parents, Dan Yang was fascinated by her young daughter’s obsession with her iPhone. As she went through the process of planning the best way to introduce her to technology, apps, and games, she quickly became frustrated with the lack of educational technology made specifically for children. Unlike many parents, however, Yang is an entrepreneur and optical engineer, so she did what any entrepreneurial, geeky mom would do: She decided to hack her own solution.

Yang developed VINCI Early Learning Systems and VINCI tablets — which she believes to be the first FDA-safety-compliant tablet that is designed purely for youngins. The learning tool, as she calls it, is itself built to develop (along with the content it includes) thinking skills, social, language, and literacy abilities, along with quantitative and logical reasoning, etc.

The tablet found an audience, and VINCI has since grown into a 50-person company. Of course, a tablet and learning tool without a supporting network or resources to supply it with content is a lonely device. So, today, the startup is announcing the release of the VINCI Kids Library, a library for kid-focused digital content and apps, including interactive stories, learning games, and over 500 titles at launch — with what Yang expects to be 1,000 titles before the end of the year.

Tailored for kids between 18 months and nine-years, the company believes it has built (and is building) the world’s largest digital children’s library. And in case that doesn’t already sound appealing to parents, the founder tells us that the library is free of not only commercials, but adult content, violence, and in-app purchases, which adds to its appeal as a safe digital learning environment for your kids.

To help fill its library with content, VINCI has partnered with recognized children’s educational content providers like TVO, The Jim Henson Company and Mightybooks. And while the VINCI is powered by Android, unfortunately these niche app/content libraries are always going to struggle against the volume of content on the App Store and Google Play. But for those parents who aren’t completely comfortable with their youngsters messing around with iPads, that want something built specifically for kids, it seems like a great choice.

“The Kids Library is designed to be a one-stop shop for your child’s entertainment and learning,” Yang said. “With hundreds of apps, storybooks and videos children will have access to a high-quality, safe digital library that inspires continued learning.”

Yang and company are also inviting game developers to help create apps for the Kids Library. As incentive, the company is offering hackers access to marketing opportunities, special features and announcements, and a 75 percent rev share for those qualified Android apps. Not bad.

Oh, and content is free for now, so get on it.（source:techcrunch）