Week 9In a week where the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona took the attention of mobile enthusiasts, Flappy Bird clones continue to dominate the App Store rankings.
- Flappy Bird clone craze exposes the discovery flaws of the (Fl)App Store (TechCrunch)Nearly 3 weeks after Flappy Bird was pulled off the App Store, the top rankings remain filled with Flappy Bird clones, leaving no room for new apps. According to Ouriel Ohayon, the current situation exposes the issues of discovery in the App Store more than ever. Although the Flappy Bird era will not go on forever, Ohayon proposes dramatic changes to the “outdated legacy software”, in order for great app developers to, once again, succeed on the App Store.
- Survey: Japan is kicking the world’s butt in terms of mobile revenue (Re/code)A new publication by Distimo digs into the margin between the Cost Per Install (CPI) and average revenue pr. download in the mobile games market. The report reveals a very narrow margin in the Western markets, e.g. in the US where CPI accounts for 86% of the expected average revenue. Meanwhile, publishers pay only 30% of average revenue for a download in the Japanese market. Get the full publication here.
- The next half billion new smartphone customers will come from India and Africa – not China (Tech in Asia)The International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that after astounding 351 smartphones shipments to China in 2013, the market is now reaching its saturation point. According to IDC, the future growth lies in the poorer emerging markets, most notably India and in Africa. Also, they predict that the growth will not be in high-end smartphones like the iPhone, but rather sub $100 devices.
- Google introduces visionary mobile device that will change the way we play games ([a]listdaily)Google stole the attention of mobile gamers at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, with the introduction of Project Tango. The objective of the product is “to give mobile devices a human-scale understanding of space and motion”, and thereby the capability to turn any room into a mobile game area. The prototype is limited to 200 devices and will be in the hands of the lucky testers by March 14th.
- Acquiring paying users is a hunt for whales (VentureBeat)The search for paying customers in the mobile games market may be a whale hunt, a survey from Swrve shows. According to the report, a mere 0.15% of mobile gamers account for no less than 50% of total revenue. This underlines the importance of targeting acquisition campaigns towards the right users, as well as making sufficient efforts to retain existing valuable customers.