What’s been going on in mobile the last two weeks? The short answer: a lot. Once again though, the slightly longer and more useful answer can be found below, in our five-piece summary of the hottest happenings, including some game-changing antics from Apple and some insights into the South Korean mobile gaming market from our blog!
The Main Piece of News of the Fortnight (Wall St. Cheat Sheet)
This week many have felt the long arm of Apple tapping them on the shoulders, or at least heard the rumors, as people began to notice the rejection of apps which incentivized video ad views and social shares. Whether or not it’s totally true (Apple have been quiet on the matter so far), it’s easy to see why. Apps that promote other apps can synthetically skew user reviews and chart rankings; something that Apple, understandably, has a history of taking issue with.AppLift’s Tip for Your Next Moves: Check Apple’s regulations, and adapt if necessary, making sure your app monetization strategy and/or app promotion strategies don’t rely solely on methods that put your app at risk of rejection.The Asian Insight of the Fortnight (AppLift)
From our blog last week, our first installment of Asian Beat contains insights into the South Korean games market, including facts and figures, OTT messaging service Kakao’s dominance over the scene and what’s hot in terms of mobile gaming trends right now. Keep following the Asian Beat for more insights.The AppLift Press Mention of the Fortnight (VentureBeat) 
Among our press mentions this fortnight was a VentureBeat article which quotes our recent blog post about iTunes Connect’s new attribution features which will be rolled out as part of the iOS 8 update. Though not available yet, they will sllow developers to track everything they need to in terms of acquisition, engagement and retention: like views, clicks, installs, in-app purchase data and more.
Benefit for Developers: iTunes Connect’s new attribution features will allow for more transparent, thorough and accurate tracking of all the metrics you need to monitor. Good news for user LTV and revenue optimization.The List of the Fortnight (PocketGamer)
We love a good round-up list, and this rundown of the eight best features of the forthcoming iOS 8 is no exception. Their eight highlights include the better graphics and faster performance that the new Metal will bring, as well as the huge App Store overhauls like better corrective search, a new Explore tab and an Editor’s Choice section. In short, there’s a lot for developers to get excited about and be prepared for!The Growing Trend of the Fortnight (NativeMobile.com)
Mobile users are changing their search habits moving away from browser-based search engines like Google and towards Yelp, KAYAK, Amazon, Indeed and other apps dedicated to niche search. Mobile search advertising is a mammoth that’s continually growing; predicted dominance of the US digital search advertising market is 85.9% by 2018. Google still rules the roost, but mobile search apps will start to see bigger revenues as advertisers increase their spend to match user behavior.
AppLift’s Tip for Your Next Moves: While search apps focussing on specific fields like restaurants, travel, jobs and ecommerce are a new phenomenon, with users remaining pretty loyal to old school Google, it makes sense for advertisers that use search marketing for their app to be visible within key directory apps as this trend grows.