1）据insidemobileapps报道，苹果日前宣布App Store已有77.5万款应用，其中iPad应用超过30万（游戏邦注：苹果首席执行官Tim Cook在去年9月份发布iPhone 5时曾宣布App Store应用数量为70万，iPad应用为25万），App Store总体下载量达400亿次（不包括重复下载及下载应用更新版本的次数），2012年下载量将近200亿次。

APP-STORE-DOWNLOADS(from huffpost)

此外苹果还宣布，Backflip Studios、Supercell这两家开发商分别推出的《DragonVale》以及《Clash of Clans》这两款免费游戏总收益达1亿美元。

2）Deloitte最新数据预测，2013年全球智能手机出货量将达10亿部，推动智能手机整体出货量逼近20亿。

Deloitte还指出虽然有些智能手机售价高达700美元，但今年将有5亿手机售价低于100美元，还有许多手机售价不到50美元。

smartphones(from telegraph)

尽管智能手机在许多国家的普及率已经超过50%，但预计在2013年约4亿智能手机用户很少（每周不足一次）或者从不通过移动网络或Wi-Fi上网。

目前在发达国家中，日本是移动网络使用率最高的市场（92%），美国和英国分别以85%和79%的比例位居第二和第三。

但在发展中国家，越南在2012年第一季度的智能手机普及率约30%，但仅有11%用户使用3G网络。土耳其移动网络使用率最高，达到91%，其次是克罗地亚（85%）和南非（81%）。

虽然中国是全球智能手机出货量最大的市场，但却并非移动网络覆盖率最高的国家。

Deloitte还发现16%智能手机用户从不未下载一款应用程序，而在发达国家中，这一比例甚至高达21%；在发展中国家，从未下载应用程序的用户比例为13%。由此可见，这些用户可能仅使用预装到移动设备上的应用程序。

3）Accenture最新调查结果显示，2013年消费者最想购买的电子产品分别是智能手机（在受访者中占比41%），PC（36%），高清电视（33%）以及平板电脑（23%）。

从调查结果可以看出，在过去4年中，用户倾向于选择具有多种用途的设备而非仅有一种用途的产品（游戏邦注：Accenture调查样本为1.1万名用户，调查时间为2012年9月），例如兼具查看邮件，看视频、拍照或访问社交网站等功能的设备。

但也有一些例外情况，比如电子阅读器、GPS设备和蓝牙播放器等“使用率仍在不断上升”的产品类型，但比起智能手机、平板电脑和PC仍然略逊一筹。

Tablet-Users(from orphicpixel)

4）NPD Group调查指出，有68%受访者对自己已经得到的科技产品（例如平板电脑和智能手机等电子产品）很满意，还有11%自称外出时必须随身携带这些设备。

但实际上，多数用户（包括年轻群体）也表示，自己并不急于购买新设备，并称只会购买符合自己生活方式的设备。

价格、品牌和软件是用户购买这些新设备的主要考虑因素，iPhone用户看中的是品牌，平板电脑用户则根据功能和价钱选择设备。

5）据Engadget报道，图形处理器制造商Nvidia日前宣布将推出基于Android的手机游戏控制器Project Shield，该设备采用了5英寸、720p高清屏幕，以及双摇杆控制器，并且支持运行Windows PC游戏，以及Steam最新的Big Picture Mode功能。

nvidia_project_shield(from slashgear.com)

知情者透露上，该设备原型运行的是全新的Tegra 4处理器，并将采用续航能力为5-10小时的可充电锂离子电池；支持访问Google Play以及Nvidia的Tegrazon应用商店，以及玩家的Steam游戏内容。

该产品原型目前运行的是Android Jelly Bean操作系统，预计于2013年第二季度发布，但并未公布具体售价。（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）Apple App Store exceeds 40 billion downloads, houses 775,000 apps in total

Scott Reyburn

The Apple App Store exceeded 40 billion downloads in total, with nearly 20 billion coming in 2012, read a press release from Apple.

December in particular was a record-breaking month in terms of app downloads, with more than two billion apps downloaded during the month.

Apple added that DragonVale developer Backflip Studios and Supercell, developer of Clash of Clans and HayDay, raked in a combined $100 million for their freemium titles DragonVale and Clash of Clans.

“It has been an incredible year for the iOS developer community,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, in a statement. “Developers have made over seven billion dollars on the App Store, and we continue to invest in providing them with the best ecosystem so they can create the most innovative apps in the world.”

According to Apple, the App Store now houses more than 775,000 apps, up from the previously reported 700,000 apps. More than 300,000 of the 775,000 apps are native iPad apps, up 50,000 apps since Apple CEO Tim Cook reported 250,000 native iPad apps in the Apple App Store at the iPhone 5 launch event in September. Google last reported 700,000 apps in the Google Play Store, which made the app store tied with the Apple App Store at the time in quantity of apps.

Note that the 40 billion download figure excludes re-downloads and app updates.（source：insidemobileapps）

2）Smartphone Shipments To Top 1B For the First Time In 2013, But The Definition Of ‘Smartphone’ Is Slipping: Deloitte

Ingrid Lunden

The smartphone boom is continuing apace, but with growth comes mutation: new figures out from Deloitte estimate that 2013 will be the first year that the industry collectively ships 1 billion smartphones worldwide, taking the total installed base of smartphones to nearly 2 billion. However, at the same time, the definition of “smartphone” is changing, perhaps in some surprising ways.

Deloitte, which has provided us with a preview of some of the findings from its Global Mobile Consumer Survey that is officially coming out next week, notes that while some smartphones can sell for $700, about half a billion handsets this year will sell for less than $100, with many models under $50. This — combined with the prevalence of feature phones with smartphone-like features and the fact that many smartphones are being used as “dumbphones” — means that the definition of “smartphone” is blurring.

“The definition of a smartphone for this prediction is based on consumer perceptions of what a smartphone is, rather than the standard industry definition, which pivots on the type of operating system (OS) used,” Deloitte writes. “Many consumers, particularly middle majority adopters, are likely to consider phones as smart if they have touch screens or full keyboards and they can use apps and not based on what intangible OS is under the hood.”

The idea that dumbphones are getting smarter sounds about right — witness Samsung’s bada feature phone line that is already counted by some in smartphone estimates, or Nokia’s move to acquire companies to help it soup up its lower-end handsets.

But the other part of Deloitte’s assumption, that people don’t recognise what “intangible OS is under the hood,” runs counter to figures out earlier today from rival consultancy Accenture. It found, in a survey of 11,000 consumers, that a full 100 percent of them could name the operating systems on their phones. That could imply that, although some believe that consumers don’t care or know about their operating systems, in fact the reverse may be true.

While many countries are starting to pass a tipping point where there are more smartphones being bought than feature devices, Deloitte has produced some evidence that shows that not all smartphones are being used to their full potential: Deloitte estimates that about one in every five smartphone owners, or 400 million users, may never or rarely (less than once a week) connect to the Web through cellular or Wi-Fi in 2013.

“Throughout the year, there are likely to be hundreds of millions of smartphone owners who are not on a data package,” it writes. “The 400 million smartphones that never or rarely connect to the Web in 2013 will not be idle, but their usage will resemble that of a feature phone.”

In other words, the trend works both ways: some feature phones are smartphones, but in reality, some smartphones have been relegated to dumbphone use.

In developed markets, Japan is currently topping the list of mobile Internet usage at 92 percent, with the U.S. and UK in second and third with 85 percent and 79 percent, respectively. That seems to indicate that mobile Internet usage correlates with overall smartphone ownership, since these three rank among the highest for overall penetration.

In emerging markets, the smartphone often becomes a replacement for a PC altogether because of cost and lack of fixed broadband networks (and lack of commercial appetite to invest in these instead of more quickly installable wireless networks).

But at the same time, it points out that there are a lot of gating factors: a lingering lack of interest among users to get connected, or data tariffs that remain unaffordable or difficult to understand, or a remaining basic lack of infrastructure. In some cases, consumers simply aren’t able to buy feature phones anymore, so when they purchase smartphones they just use them like their past devices. In Vietnam as of Q1 2012, smartphone penetration was around 30 percent, Deloitte notes, but only 11 percent of subscribers had a 3G subscription.

Still, all that together has translated to an equally similar number of smartphone owners using their devices for Internet connectivity, as well. Turkey ranks the highest at  91 percent, followed by Croatia and South Africa at 85 percent and 81 percent, respectively.

Interestingly, although China is now considered to be the world’s biggest smartphone market in terms of shipments, it’s not ranking in either list as the most connected of smartphone user bases. That shows just how much potential is left in that market.

Another area where Deloitte points out smartphone owners are not necessarily globally active is apps. It found that a full 16 percent of smartphone owners have never downloaded a single app. That number, interestingly, is even higher in developed markets, at 21 percent, and lower among urban professional smartphone owners in emerging markets, of which 13 percent have never downloaded an app. “It may be that the only apps this category of owners will ever use are those that come pre-loaded onto the device,” Deloitte writes.

Some of the issue is lack of interest — something that might come as a surprise to some in the occasionally-insular tech world — but, again, with feature phones being difficult to buy these days in some markets, a lot of users are simply buying fancier devices but continuing to use them for only their most basic functions.（source：techcrunch）

3）As Demand For Tablets, Smartphones And Connected Screens Soars, Pure Play Devices Under Threat, Says Accenture

Ingrid Lunden

Attention dumbphones, point-and-shoot cameras and music players: sorry to tell you this, but it looks like your days may be numbered. According to a new survey out from Accenture (embedded below and released to coincide with the CES show), consumers are moving away from buying “single-use” devices and opting instead for those that offer the ability to do many things, with smartphones (at 41% of respondents), PCs (36%), HDTVs (33%) and tablets (23%) topping the list of items consumers are most likely to buy in 2013, as gadget spending is projected to reach $1.1 trillion.

It’s a familiar story to those of us who write about the tech industry and trends in smartphones and tablets, but Accenture’s research, covering 11,000 consumers worldwide, shows that this is more than just the musings of analysts, and a global trend fuelled by the rise of superphones and tablets.

The survey, from September 2012, was based around consumer responses to some 16 different types of consumer electronics categories — from tablets and smartphones and connected TVs through to cameras, basic TVs and e-readers.

In a telling table of increasing versus decreasing ownership, it’s clear that over the last four years, consumers have been gravitating much more towards devices that let them email and watch TV, or take pictures and post them instantly to social networks.

There are a few exceptions. For example, e-readers, GPS devices and Blu-Ray players are still appearing in the ‘increasing usage’ category, albeit as smaller players compared to tablets, smartphones and PCs. And PCs are actually a little bumpy in consumer sentiment, but they are by far the biggest category — with basic mobile phones still a close second — and so even small declines will continue to keep them the most important consumer electronics device for a while to come.（source：techcrunch）

4）CES 2013: 68 per cent of consumers are happy with the tech they have

by Zen Terrelonge

NPD says innovation is in the control of customers, not new products.

WIth gadgets galore being showcased at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, The NPD Group suggests it may all be in vain. 68 per cent of consumers have said they’re satisfied with the tech they already have, while 11 per cent admit they can’t leave home without their connected devices.

In fact, most consumers, inclusive of younger ones, said they have not urgent desire to upgrade and invest in new devices, adding that the tech needs to fit into their lifestyle.

Russ Crupnick, senior VP of industry analysis at NPD, said: “There is a fundamental conflict between marketing to early adopters who are more profitable customers and evangelists, and the rest of us. The industry can’t rely on consumers to drive innovation; it needs to give consumers a reason to want to adopt the innovation.”

Price, brand, and software are key drivers for consumers to adopt new technology, with iPhone users buying the device for the name, while tablet buyers swooped for tablets based on features and prices, insisting they’re not interested in ‘fancy things’.

Stephen Baker, VP of industry analysis at NPD, added: “Consumers want their technology devices to provide solutions to everyday problems, which often aren’t the most glamorous.

“They’d like help getting the best prices when they shop, being safe in their cars, managing their home and family and enjoying basic entertainment.”（source：mobile-ent）

5）Nvidia enters the handheld console gaming wars with Project Shield

by Joe Osborne

Who saw this one coming? Graphics processor manufacturer Nvidia has announced Project Shield, an Android-based mobile gaming console complete with a 5-inch, 720p HD screen attached to a console-style controller with dual analog sticks. Oh, and the thing can stream games playing on a Windows PC and has support for Steam’s new-fangled Big Picture Mode.

According to our friends at Engadget, the prototype announced during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas runs on Nvidia’s brand new Tegra 4 processor and promises five to 10 hours of play on its rechargeable lithium ion battery. Being an Android device, the gizmo has access to Google Play’s host of games as well as Nvidia’s Tegrazone store. However, since the console can stream PC games, it also has access to players’ Steam libraries.

For the techies out there, this prototype currently runs on Android’s Jelly Bean operating system at the moment, but that may change when Project Shield ships in “Q2 2013,” according to Engadget. (Pricing has yet to be discussed, but it would be safe to expect to pay a premium for this monster.) Without even mentioning the mere existence of game-capable smartphones and tablets, this is exactly the situation that should make handheld console leaders Nintendo and Sony sweat.（source：games）