1）eMarketer最近数据预测，2013年美国智能手机用户将达1.4亿，超过2012年时的1.214亿。在这些智能手机中，苹果将占比38.3%（去年占比36.5%），Android将占比45.9%（高于去年时的43.5%）。

值得注意的是，iPad市场份额开始下滑，在2011年在美国平板电脑市场份额高达83%，但2012年已降至59%，预计今年将降至54.5%。

去年约有四分之一的美国人每月至少使用一次平板电脑，今年这一比例已增长至40%。

Smartphone users(from tsminteractive.com)

平均来看，美国人在平板电脑和智能手机上的每天平均投入时间为1小时。

eMarketer预计2013年全球有14亿人将使用智能手机，这一数据在2014年将增长至17.4亿人。

2）据venturebeat报道，前Zynga二号人物John Schappert日前宣布成立新游戏工作室Shiver Entertainment并获得了韩国网游巨头Nexon的投资。

这是Nexon最近几个月来的第三笔主要投资，该公司还投资了Brian Reynold成立的SecretNewCo工作室，以及Greg Richardson的Rumble Entertainment工作室。

John Schappert(from gamesindustry)

Shiver Entertainment将入驻迈阿密，与John Schappert多年前创立的Tiburon公司相隔不远（游戏邦注：Schappert于1994年成立了这家体育游戏工作室，最初仅有3名成员，EA于1998年收购该工作室，并将其更名为EA Tiburon，之后推出了包括《Madden NFL》在内的大量热作，Schappert也因此成为EA首席运营官，此外还曾担任微软Live Software服务部门副总裁以及Zynga首席运营官），主要针对PC和移动设备制作免费游戏。

3）StatCounter最新数据显示，在过去12个月中，三星已经超越苹果，成为使用最普遍的智能手机品牌。

截止今年8月底，三星在全球所占份额将近26%，超过去年同期时的20.6%。

smartphone share(from statcounter)

在此期间，苹果使用率则有所下滑，从原来的24.5%降至23.4%。

4）移动广告网站Chitika最新报告显示，苹果新操作系统iOS 7虽然还未正式公开发布，但它在iPhone、iPad、iPod Touch网络流量中占比已达1%。

iOS-7-concept-Simply-Zesty(from idownloadblog)

有92%的iOS网络流量来自iOS 6，5%来自iOS 5，2%来自更早之前的版本。而这1%的iOS 7很可能来自拥有优先访问权的苹果手机应用开发者（游戏邦注：苹果给予开发者访问iOS 7以便测试、修复漏洞和检测兼容性的权限）。

值得注意的是，Chitika调查还发现，来自iOS 7的iPad网络流量不足1%，可见用户为iPhone升级操作系统的速度要快于iPad。

5）据venturebeat报道，亚马逊日前澄清将推出免费智能手机的传言，表示公司不会在今年发布手机产品，该设备也并非免费产品。

amazon-smartphone(from androidheadlines)

观察者分析称，此举或意味着亚马逊的确正在研发自主品牌的智能手机，只是发布时间仍然未知，尽管该设备并非免费产品，但仍有可能以硬件折扣等优惠方式现身。

6）据venturebeat报道，IDC数据指出今年第二季度Windows Phone平台应用数量已超过17万，比去年同期增长77.6%。

windows phone store(from 199it.com)

7）据insidemobileapps报道，EA日前宣布将于10月31日关闭旗下即时战略游戏《BattleForge》，该游戏最初发布于2009年，支持玩家通过收集卡牌，使用军队打败一系列恶魔怪物。

battleforge(from insidemobileapps)

该游戏开发商EA Phenomic于今年7月份关闭工作室，并由Easy Stydios接管这款游戏的运营工作。（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）Analysts: iOS growth lags, and iPad is losing market share

Jolie O’Dell

On the eve of Apple’s big iPhone announcement, we’ve got some interesting stats for your perusal. First, there’s the iOS-versus-Android news: The OSes are fairly close when it comes to growth, with Android taking a slight advantage. But Android still trumps iOS on market share by 7 percent.

In toto, we’re lookin’ at around 140 million smartphone users in the U.S. for 2013, up from 121.4 million in 2012. Of those smartphones, 38.3 percent will be sold by Apple (up from 36.5 percent last year) and 45.9 percent will be running the Android operating system (up from 43.5 percent).

These numbers come to us from eMarketer, a digital intelligence firm.

More tidbits:

The iPad is actually starting to lose market share to smaller, cheaper tablets like the Kindle and some of the more lightweight Android models. In 2011, Apple took home an 83 percent slice of the U.S. tablet pie. That figure plummeted to just 59 percent last year and is expected to drop even further in 2013, down to just 54.5 percent. At this rate, the company’s majority take won’t last long.

Last year, around a quarter of all Americans used a tablet at least once a month. This year, that number has risen to a whopping 40 percent.

On average, Americans will spend an average of one hour each on tablets and smartphones — that’s an average of two hours per day per person on mini-computers.

Around the world in 2013, eMarketer estimates 1.4 billion people will use smartphones, and that number will increase to 1.74 billion in 2014. Gee, whiz!（source：venturebeat）

2）Ex-Zynga exec John Schappert starts new game startup with investment from Nexon

Dean Takahashi

John Schappert, the former No. 2 executive at Zynga, has gone back to his roots as a game developer, creating a new game startup Shiver Entertainment with funding from Nexon.

The investment is the third major deal that Nexon has cut in a few months, where it has agreed to investment money in and publish titles from startups that have been created by some of the most well-known developers of video games. Besides Schappert’s new company, Nexon has also invested in Brian Reynold’s SecretNewCo and in Greg Richardson’s Rumble Entertainment. The move will take Nexon, which made its name with free-to-play games such as Maplestory, into Western game markets and, possibly, make it a player on the global stage for games.

Shiver Entertainment (named after the word for a pack of sharks) will be based in Miami, where Schappert grew up and not far from the game company, Tiburon, that he created many years ago.

It is the latest step in a storied career that included the No. 2 jobs at Zynga, Electronic Arts, and Microsoft’s Xbox business. The new company, founded in December, will make free-to-play games for the PC and mobile devices, and that’s why it’s a good fit within the portfolio of Nexon, the Asian game company that pioneered free-to-play.

“It was a lot of fun working in the big corporate jobs of the past few years,” Schappert said in an interview with GamesBeat. “But the most fun I had in my career was when I started Tiburon and ran game studios working with some of the best creators in the world making some of the most successful games in the world.

One of the unique things about Schappert is that he was one of the game executive who got a start by making games himself. Schappert started Tiburon Entertainment as a sports game studio in 1994. Electronic Arts acquired Tiburon, now known as EA Tiburon, in 1998. The studio makes blockbuster sports titles including Madden NFL, NCAA Football, NASCAR, and other EA Sports titles.

Schappert went on to become the chief operating officer at EA, the corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Live Software and Services division (Xbox Live and Microsoft Game Studios), and COO at Zynga.

But Schappert said the Tiburon team began with just three people, and it now has 600 people.（source：venturebeat）

3）Samsung usurps Apple as world’s most used smartphone vendor

by Keith Andrew

It’s not a metric that directly refers to sales, but StatCounter’s latest numbers on mobile usage is nevertheless of much interest to mobile developers – if only to help highlight which phones engage their audience the most.

As such, the suggestion that Samsung has, in the last 12 months, surpassed Apple as the most-used smartphone manufacturer based on browser use is significant.

Developers who currently prioritise iOS during the development of titles may now be suitably convinced to lead with Android – especially when you consider that Samsung is just one Android manufacturer, with other OEMs such as HTC, Sony Ericsson and LG also featuring prominently in the stats.

Handing over the baton

As things stand up until the end of August, Samsung boasts a near 26 percent global share, up from the 20.6 percent share the Korean giant accounted for a year previously.

Apple, meanwhile, has seen its share of consumer usage fall slightly across the same period, coming in at 23.4 percent, down from 24.5 percent.

Interestingly, however, that downwards trajectory only kicked off recently, with Apple having peaked at a 27.2 percent share back in February 2013.

Brand power

Samsung’s trick – if that’s the appropriate word – has been to perform strongly in markets where it isn’t top of the pile, enabling it to pull ahead when the countries where it leads the way are brought into the mix.

Also of note is Nokia’s position in a clear third place.

Despite the slow start for Windows Phone – and the platform’s continued inability to make a mark in the US – Nokia’s existing userbase means it’s able to punch above its weight when it comes to usage.

The challenge – or, perhaps, opportunity – for the soon to be Microsoft-owned Nokia will be to convince those previously loyal to the brand to upgrade to its latest range of handsets, with Nokia top dog in multiple countries across Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.（source：pocketgamer）

4）iOS 7: The day before launch, 1% of iPhone traffic is already rocking Apple’s new OS

John Koetsier

The day before iOS 7 will almost certainly launch to the public, Apple’s new operating system for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch already has one percent of iOS web traffic.

I guess there’s a lot of “developers” out there.

According to ad network Chitika, 92 percent of iOS internet traffic is from Apple’s current standard operating system, iOS 6. A little five percent slice is from iOS 5, and two percent is from even earlier versions — likely on older devices that cannot be fully updated. But one percent is on Apple’s newest system, iOS 7, which is theoretically only available to card-carrying, dues-paying members of Apple’s mobile developer program.

Apple gives developers early access to iOS 7 for testing, bugfixing, and compatibility checking, and I’ve been using and enjoying it since before June, when I called it “the essence of less.”

Clearly, however, more than your typical developer audience has gotten their hands on this new operating system.

iPad users haven’t been so quick to move to iOS 7, however

Apple users typically are very quick adopters of new operating systems, creating a much more unified mobile ecosystem than Android, which has traditionally has significantly more fragmentation of devices and operating system versions than iOS — although that is diminishing.

When iOS 7 actually does become available, it should quickly overtake iOS 6 as the most popular iPhone operating system.

One interesting note from Chitika: While iPhone users are already adopting iOS 7, they haven’t been updating their iPads at anywhere near the same rate. Much less than one percent of iPad web traffic is from iOS 7-upgraded devices. That matches my personal experience, where I’ve updated my iPhone to iOS 7 but left my iPad, which is less of a continual-use device, on iOS 6.（source：venturebeat）

5）Amazon denies smartphone rumors: Won’t launch a phone this year, and it won’t be free

Devindra Hardawar

Typically quiet Amazon has jumped to deny rumors that it’s working on a smartphone that would be offered to consumers for free.

Amazon also noted that it won’t be launching a phone this year in a statement to Jessica Lessin’s news site (a proto-site for a new tech news project from the former WSJ writer).

Amazon typically keeps its lips sealed when it comes to rumors, especially those surrounding a potential smartphone (which have been swirling for years). So it’s a surprising statement and strongly hints that Amazon is planning to launch a smartphone at some point. And while the company is making it clear that its phone won’t be free, there’s still room to offer plenty of other discounts around the price of the hardware, or the plans consumers could subscribe to.（source：venturebeat）

6）Microsoft on Windows Phone: We grew 78% last quarter

John Koetsier

Tomorrow, Apple is going to unveil new iPhones, new sales numbers, and a new mobile operating system. Tonight, however, Microsoft put up its hand and said, “Don’t forget about us!”

And the company has good reason to.

Windows Phone is clearly the up-and-coming mobile platform. It has taken third place in the global smartphone wars away from a certain black fruit. And it is clearly the mobile operating system that is growing the fastest — which arguably is easier to do when you start small. But it’s also the mobile ecosystem that developers have started to pay more and more attention to, as Windows Phone now sports more than 170,000 apps.

That’s resulted in a mobile operating system that grew 77.6 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2013, according to the IDC.（source：venturebeat）

7）EA announces closure of Play4Free RTS BattleForge

Brandy Shaul

Electronic Arts has announced the closure of its “Play4Free” real-time-strategy game (RTS) BattleForge. The game was first launched in 2009, and allowed players to fight against a variety of evil monsters using an army that they assemble themselves via the collection of cards.

BattleForge features single-player and multiplayer gameplay, allowing groups of up to 12 players to complete missions cooperatively, as well as ranked and unranked player-vs-player matches. EA says the game was “the first RTS to combine the social and community aspects of an MMO with an exciting RTS.”

BattleForge developer EA Phenomic was shuttered in July, and Battlefield Play4Free house Easy Studios took over the reigns, keeping the game alive until now.

“The decision to retire older games is never easy,” reads the game’s blog. “We hope you’ve enjoyed playing BattleForge as much as we enjoyed making it and we wish to extend our sincerest thanks to all of our passionate and dedicated players for supporting BattleForge over the past 4 years.”

BattleForge will close on October 31. Users with remaining in-game currency are encouraged to use that money before the game is shut down. No currency transfers or compensation packages have been announced for/in other games as of this writing.（source：insidesocialgames）