Study: Mobile gamers download five titles a month, mostly through word of mouth
A new study released by Applifier says that word of mouth is still the number one way mobile game players find the games they like. That doesn’t necessarily mean in-person discussion about mobile games, however, though 36% of users did report that hearing from a friend or family member was a major source of games, and 25% of users said actually seeing a friend or family member play a game was one way they found out about their favorites. 43% of users, however, say reading user reviews was the main way they found what they liked to play.
Video is another big game pusher — 70% of users polled by Applifier say that they watched online video about mobile games in the last week, and 45% of users said that watching the video had them downloading that same game right away.
Most mobile game players, according to Applifier, download up to five mobile games a month, which is just a little more than one per week. Those games are played for about 3 hours per week, though obviously that’s spread out across the entire week, so most likely little bits here and there rather than three hours at a time. And 20% of users, said Applifier, can be classified as “sharers,” which means they are more likely to download more games, play more often and for longer, and convert to paying users. All interesting stuff. For all of the infrastructure for app discovery built by Apple and others, odds are that you’re still hearing about your favorite iOS downloads from the people that you know best anyway.
Study: Mobile gamers download five titles a month, mostly through word of mouth originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 23 May 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog
Apple’s iAd first major mobile ad-networks to get Media Ratings Council accreditation
Apple’s iAd for iPhone and iPad gained a bit more legitimacy this month as it received accreditation from a major advertising body, making it the first mobile platform to achieve the distinction.
AppleInsider – Frontpage News
Unity makes mobile tools free for small devs
Unity has announced that it’s making its mobile game development tools free to use for most independent and small studios. Unity has always been a popular engine both for mobile game development and for cross-platform game creation, but up until now, you had to pay about $ 800 to actually publish Unity-created apps on the iOS or Android stores. Those basic add-ons have now been made free, so anyone can now download Unity, and then use it to publish an app for iOS or Android without paying a fee for the engine.
Unity still has pro versions available for sale to both iOS and Android developers, and anyone making over $ 100,000 per year with their releases is required by Unity to go ahead and purchase a pro license. So there are still some limits on exactly how this all works, and if your iPhone app does hit it big, Unity still would like its due. But starting off for free should open the door for even more indie devs to get in and try Unity, and make for even more and better games on the App Store.
Unity makes mobile tools free for small devs originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog
EVE Online creator CCP revving up for mobile release
Touch Arcade recently had a chat with CCP, the Icelandic developer behind the popular MMO EVE Online, and while there aren’t any announcements yet, it certainly sounds like they’re gearing up for some iOS apps, or even maybe a client for the game itself. EVE’s been on the Mac for a while now, and there have been some third-party attempts at bringing parts of the game to iOS. But CCP has just released a companion game called Dust 514 on the PS3, and that means it’s probably time they start thinking about tying in iOS and other popular mobile platforms as well.
There’s an app called Neocom coming from CCP to the PS Vita, and executive producer John Lander calls that app a “tracer bullet” to see if the community’s interested in more mobile offerings. Neocom allows players to customize their weapons and buy and sell virtual goods for the game, and that seems like an excellent set of functionality to bring over to iOS as well.
Lander says that there are lots and lots of possibilities, and that CCP is planning on stepping up development this year, hopefully moving towards lots of little projects with quicker turnarounds. At any rate, there’s something coming from CCP for sure. “This time next year, you will have EVE Mobile in your hand,” Lander told assembled fans at a recent company gathering.
EVE Online creator CCP revving up for mobile release originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 May 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog
King claims 70 million daily active players, Pet Rescue Saga coming soon to mobile
King, which used to be called King.com it pulled a name change at GDC this year, has announced that it has 70 million daily active players, which is a crazy number. By far, King’s biggest title is Candy Crush Saga. The company notes that the game has 15.5 million active players on Facebook every day. Candy Crush Saga is also a big hit on iOS, where it consistently appears in the top charts for both most downloaded and top grossing.
King also announced its intention to bring Pet Rescue Saga to iOS. That game has 6 million daily players on Facebook, and King says it will be the third saga game (along with Bubble Witch Saga) to make the leap to mobile platforms. Pet Rescue Saga will arrive on both iOS and Android later this summer.
King’s success is just phenomenal. It’s impressive for any form of media to reach 70 million people, and for that to happen daily is just crazy. This casual games market can blow up overnight and shrink just as fast (just ask Zynga), but for now, King is doing impressively well.
King claims 70 million daily active players, Pet Rescue Saga coming soon to mobile originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 May 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog
Corning Announces ‘Lotus XT’ Substrate Glass for Brighter, Cheaper Mobile Displays
Corning yesterday announced (via Engadget) the launch of its latest glass substrate for LCD and OLED displays, Lotus XT Glass. While Corning is famous for its Gorilla Glass used by Apple and other device manufacturers to provide durable covers for their displays, substrate glass like Lotus Glass is used within the displays themselves to support the transistors and other components necessary for the displays to function.
The Corning Lotus Glass platform enables organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays and liquid crystal displays (LCD) that use either low-temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) or oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) backplanes. The result is an energy-efficient, immersive display device that features high resolution, fast response times, and bright picture quality.
Lotus XT Glass, an improved version of the original Lotus Glass announced in late 2011, offers improved thermal characteristics and stability to help increase efficiency and yield during display production. Lotus XT Glass is available in a variety of thicknesses ranging from 0.4 to 0.7 mm to support various applications.
In an introductory video, Corning vice president John Bayne outlines how Lotus XT Glass will enable better displays with improved yields:
Our customers, the panel makers, are basically making thin-film transistors and aligning those transistors with liquid crystal material and a color filter piece of glass. Everything has to line up just right to work.
The distance features move during processing is called total pitch. And if you measure that from sheet to sheet, it’s called total pitch variation. If panel makers can minimize total pitch variation, they can realize higher manufacturing yields and lower costs. In addition, they can design devices that have higher aperture ratios which are brighter and use less power.
It will still take some time for display manufacturers to adopt Lotus Glass XT for use in their processes and for those panels to make their way into finished products, but with Lotus Glass XT offering up to 75% better performance in total pitch variation than the original version, it seems likely that manufacturers will move quickly to adopt the product.
Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories
• 'Haunting Melissa' App Brings Episodic Movie Exclusively to iPhone and iPad
• FTC Begins Sending COPPA Letters to App Developers Ahead of July Rule Change
• eBay for iOS Updated with Multiple Item Checkout, Driver's License Scanning
• Apple Releases MacBook Air Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.0
• Google Play Books for iOS Updated with Support for Uploaded Files
• DirecTV Updates iPhone App With Voice Commands
• OS X 10.8.4 Build 12E52 Seeded to Developers
• Verizon Cuts Price on iPhone 5 by $100 for Some Customers
     |
Corning Announces ‘Lotus XT’ Substrate Glass for Brighter, Cheaper Mobile Displays
Corning yesterday announced (via Engadget) the launch of its latest glass substrate for LCD and OLED displays, Lotus XT Glass. While Corning is famous for its Gorilla Glass used by Apple and other device manufacturers to provide durable covers for their displays, substrate glass like Lotus Glass is used within the displays themselves to support the transistors and other components necessary for the displays to function.
The Corning Lotus Glass platform enables organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays and liquid crystal displays (LCD) that use either low-temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) or oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) backplanes. The result is an energy-efficient, immersive display device that features high resolution, fast response times, and bright picture quality.
Lotus XT Glass, an improved version of the original Lotus Glass announced in late 2011, offers improved thermal characteristics and stability to help increase efficiency and yield during display production. Lotus XT Glass is available in a variety of thicknesses ranging from 0.4 to 0.7 mm to support various applications.
In an introductory video, Corning vice president John Bayne outlines how Lotus XT Glass will enable better displays with improved yields:
Our customers, the panel makers, are basically making thin-film transistors and aligning those transistors with liquid crystal material and a color filter piece of glass. Everything has to line up just right to work.
The distance features move during processing is called total pitch. And if you measure that from sheet to sheet, it’s called total pitch variation. If panel makers can minimize total pitch variation, they can realize higher manufacturing yields and lower costs. In addition, they can design devices that have higher aperture ratios which are brighter and use less power.
It will still take some time for display manufacturers to adopt Lotus Glass XT for use in their processes and for those panels to make their way into finished products, but with Lotus Glass XT offering up to 75% better performance in total pitch variation than the original version, it seems likely that manufacturers will move quickly to adopt the product.
Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories
• 'Haunting Melissa' App Brings Episodic Movie Exclusively to iPhone and iPad
• FTC Begins Sending COPPA Letters to App Developers Ahead of July Rule Change
• eBay for iOS Updated with Multiple Item Checkout, Driver's License Scanning
• Apple Releases MacBook Air Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.0
• Google Play Books for iOS Updated with Support for Uploaded Files
• DirecTV Updates iPhone App With Voice Commands
• OS X 10.8.4 Build 12E52 Seeded to Developers
• Verizon Cuts Price on iPhone 5 by $100 for Some Customers
| |
Briefly: Virgin Mobile offers 15% discount on prepaid iPhone 4/4S
In a web-only exclusive, U.S. prepaid cell carrier Virgin Mobile has discounted Apple’s iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S by 15 percent, bringing prices down to as low as $ 280.
AppleInsider – Frontpage News
Review: bem wireless Mobile Speaker
As a long-time Apple user, I’m used to seeing hardware get progressively smaller, thinner, and lighter, and for the most part, as with phones and laptops, this “smaller is better” attitude has largely been successful. Even camera lenses have been able to produce above-decent images at less than 1/8th the size of traditional camera lenses. [...]
Macenstein
Mobile malware exploding, but only for Android
Malware targeting mobile devices is rapidly growing in both the number of variants found in the wild and in their complexity and sophistication, but the only platform being actively targeted is Google’s Android, which researchers now say is resembling Windows on the desktop PC.
AppleInsider – Frontpage News
Ads
