FierceDeveloper

Mobile game developers struggle to replicate Zynga's success

Peggy Albright — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:20:27 -0400

Mobile game developers are competing in one of the most difficult of all mobile application markets. Although the mobile game market is full of promise, it does not offer financial success to the vast majority of developers. The market is also entering a period of change, which will intensify competition.

Mobile games are played by 101 million people in the United States, according to a recent study by Newzoo. Worldwide, the revenues are substantial. Juniper Research recently projected that the global mobile games market will be worth $18.3 billion by 2016.

Some companies have found real riches in this market. Rovio's Angry Birds, for example, brought in $100 million in revenues last year, and Zynga pulled in $321 million. Yet, that type of success is the exception rather than the rule, as most game developers struggle to make meaningful revenues.

Streaming Colour Studios has found that the top 20 percent of iOS developers earn 97 percent of App Store revenues and that half of all mobile games distributed via Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store produce less than $3,000 in revenues. The business is even more difficult for Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android game developers, because Android apps are harder to monetize. According to the Newzoo study, iOS developers generate 84 percent of revenues from the top 200 grossing games in iPad, iPhone and Android stores.

Consolidation and increasing competition
Competition for the lucrative market is driving mobile game companies to consolidate and some are paying substantial sums to acquire hot startups. Gree International, a Japanese mobile game company, just purchased Funzio Inc. for $210 million, and Zynga just purchased OMGPOP for $180 million plus $30 million in employee-retention payments.

Mobile game developers that seek to become future acquisition targets are ramping up their business strategies to increase their influence.

Crowdstar which makes Top Girl (pictured) recently raised $11.5 million in funding.

CrowdStar for example, which just raised $11.5 million in a recent funding round, has previously offered social games for the PC as well as mobile devices and its Top Girl and Social Girl titles have enjoyed top app store rankings in the past. The company recently abandoned its PC efforts to work exclusively in mobile. It believes the mobile game market is wide open right now and that it is time to make a move for a leadership position.

"There is no single player that dominates the market, so anyone can emerge as the top player in the app store," said Suren Markosian, founder of CrowdStar. "We believe we can do that."

PC, console game companies look to mobile
Higher-end and major brands from the PC and console game industries are poised to expand their mobile strategies, and this could create competitive pressures as well as pricing impacts, according to Dave Durnil, director of advanced content and gaming at Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM).

So far in this sector, major game franchises have licensed their intellectual property to mobile developers to create mobile versions of games after the games have launched on PC and console platforms. Durnil expects these brands to begin taking more of that work in-house as they create online multi-player games that allow game participants who are using different types of devices to play against one another. The brands will orchestrate game development so that the work on all platforms, PC, console or mobile, will take place in parallel and the titles for each platform will come to market at the same time. The strategies will begin with devices that run on Windows 8 and Windows RT, and then expand to Android and iOS products, Durnil said.

Markosian: no single player dominates the market.

Durnil expects these brands to experiment with pricing. The intense loyalty that many customers have for their favorite games may allow these brands to avoid the freemium model and charge more than the usual download fees. Conceivably, this could favorably influence prices of games in general. At the same time, the brands may also find the in-app purchasing experience used in mobile to offer a new and enticing business opportunity that is new to these products.

"It will be interesting in the next couple years to see how they bring those titles over and what their pricing structure is," Durnil said.

Freemium model vs. paid apps
Monetization and distribution are generally challenging to game developers. The migration away from paid downloads to the freemium model is expected to continue and with that more and more developers will strive to monetize their games through in-app purchases and they'll use advertising more to acquire users and generate revenues.

Ilja Laurs, the founder and executive chairman of GetJar, said that 80 percent of mobile games are played only once and therefore customers will always be reluctant to pay for games. Developers do have real motivation to avoid paid apps, he said: For every game that is sold for a price, nine are distributed for free. And those customers who acquire their apps for free are actually much more valuable, often yielding in-app purchase and other revenues that are 10 to 50 times higher in value than the price of an app.

GetJar, which offers its app store and monetization services as well as advertising services for developers and advertisers, recently introduced a virtual currency system to simplify the micro-transactions featured in games. Laurs believes this approach will continue to gain traction and that within three years, half of the transactions in mobile games will employ virtual currency.

Laurs: 80 percent of mobile games are played only once

Laurs also believes that the freemium model will motivate developers to create more engaging customer experiences. They will need to do this to promote ongoing usage that exposes customers to monetization opportunities. He believes this process will improve app quality and the mobile game market overall.

The freemium model does require developers to employ in-app networks and various other marketing and advertising techniques to acquire users and they need to derive income from advertising revenues. As a result, game developers are responsible for creating "one of the biggest spending categories among all advertisers" in the mobile marketing industry, Laurs said.

Given the magnitude of the mobile game business, more vendors will emerge to serve the need for monetization and advertising solutions. PlayHaven, which launched in September, is one of these. It has introduced a platform that developers can use facilitate in-app purchases, virtual currency, incentives such as product discounts, recommendation and advertising.

Android 4.0 development standards help designers embrace the platform

Alicia Waters — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:00:00 -0400

Alicia Waters

With the unveiling of Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) at the beginning of the year, Android also revealed its first suggested app design guidelines, departing from its long heralded stance that apps for Android don't have to abide by any rules as long as they aren't malicious.

While these guidelines are by no means mandatory, they do imply that Android's flexible policies are getting a little more structure, which has us asking a series of questions: Is this good for the industry? Is it necessary for Android to continue to compete with Apple? Or should Android revert course and return to its "anything goes" cowboy roots?

I whole-heartedly welcome the 4.0 guidelines. The new UI offers more structure without being confining, and it helps fix usability issues that left Android feeling less design-forward than Apple.

For example, in previous versions of Android, if users were in a gallery and wanted to delete a photo or multiple photos, they had to first click the delete icon before selecting what they wanted to delete, which is counterintuitive. The new guidelines utilize a contextual action bar wherein users can select a photo or multiple photos via a long press and then select delete, copy, save or any other action they would need to perform.

The action bar also has a new "overflow" area where less frequently used functions are stored. It used to be that these actions were hidden in the native menu, which was arguably one of the most confusing things about Android for users and designers alike.

The new guidelines are extremely helpful for applications that include a lot of content. Updates to the top navigation help filter information and give users a seamless way to search through different categories of endless content. The new Google Play Music, Books and Movies apps are good examples of this integration.

For years, Apple had the best out-of-the-box UI guidelines, and apps on iOS just looked better. This was compounded by the fact that most designers had lots of experience working with Apple products. I've worked on a Mac since 2003, but I bought an Android phone in 2010 to learn the platform better and keep up with new Android developments.

While iOS feels like second nature and is easy to jump into as a designer, until I got into mobile I didn't know that much about Google. Traditionally, developers were drawn towards Android while designers stuck with Apple.

There are so many devices that run Android, and in this instance, a little bit of structure is good for the industry because it makes designing for Android less intimidating. With the new UI, designers and developers can come together on Android, largely for the first time.

There aren't a lot of mobile designers out there. On LinkedIn.com only 4,000 professionals claim to have skills and expertise in mobile design, while 585,000 state experience in Web design. Anything that Android can do to streamline its UI and remove barriers for designers to learn their platform is, without question, good for the mobile app industry.

While I understand the appeal of Android's Wild West, no restrictions approach, in practice, I rarely, if never, feel constricted by Android or Apple's UI guidelines and don't find myself running into roadblocks or problems being innovative on either platform.

With businesses ready to implement Android's new standards, users can look forward to higher quality, better-designed apps across Android devices--you could call it a new era for Android app development. Be on the lookout for the new sheriff in town.

Alicia Waters is a graphic designer at Metova, a software company that develops custom mobile applications for smartphone and tablet platforms, including Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7. Alicia handles mobile UI/UX design for smartphone and tablet applications. She also has experience in illustration, print, Web design, media content and event design. You can find Metova on Facebook at Facebook.com/Metova, Twitter at Twitter.com/Metova, or on the Web at Metova.com.

iOS and Android users have different taste in apps

Peggy Albright — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:48:50 -0400

The popularity of a smartphone app is heavily dependent on the operating system. A new study from comScore identified the top apps accessed by iOS and Android customers and found that the two audiences have very dissimilar usage characteristics.

The study, conducted in March among smartphone users age 18 and older, found that "system" apps topped the list for both iOS and Android. Among iOS customers, the iTunes store was the top-ranked app, used by virtually all (99.9%) customers. Among Android customers, the Android Market (Google Play) was the top app, used by 93.2 percent of Android customers.

Other leading apps used by iOS customers included Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Maps (91.2%), Facebook (80.0%), YouTube (78.2%), and Yahoo! Weather (70.3%).

Top iPhone Apps	Unique Visitors (000)	% Reach
Apple iTunes	32644	99.9%
Google Maps	29803	91.2%
Facebook	26148	80.0%
YouTube	25553	78.2%
Yahoo! Weather	22965	70.3%
Yahoo! Stocks	20765	63.6%
Pandora Radio	10478	32.1%
The Weather Channel	8817	27.0%
Temple Run	7415	22.7%
Words With Friends Free	6979	21.4%

Other leading apps used by Android customers included Google Search (84.1%), Google Maps (74.5%), Gmail (71.4%), and Facebook (68.9%).

Top Android Apps	Unique Visitors (000)	% Reach
Android Market	49717	93.2%
Google Search	44883	84.1%
Google Maps	39775	74.5%
Gmail	38108	71.4%
Facebook	36771	68.9%
Cooliris	28543	53.5%
YouTube	24739	46.4%
Google News & Weather	24134	45.2%
Angry Birds	16171	30.3%
Words With Friends	12511	23.4%

Facebook was the only social app ranked in the top five on each platform.

For more:
- read the release

Facebook wants and needs developers

Peggy Albright — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:09:45 -0400

Last week's announcement by Facebook that it is launching an App Center for distributing social apps is good news for developers. The center not only opens up the vast, untapped Facebook market for mobile apps, but it provides quality controls; innovative business terms; is friendly to iOS and Android; and it gives a big shot in the arm to HTML5. Most developers should find something they like in all of that.

The opportunity to distribute apps to the Facebook community is expressed in powerful numbers. The social network has 900 million users and 488 million of these users access Facebook via their mobile devices. The App Center will become the central place these users go to find apps.

Developers should like the fact that the center is designed to show off high-quality products. Facebook said that the center will prominently display well-designed apps that people enjoy, and apps that receive poor user ratings or don't meet guidelines won't be listed. The process should make the content better and the inventory more manageable, while improving discovery for users. In addition, developers whose apps are initially rejected will be able to modify and resubmit their apps to be listed.

Developers also should like the fact that the center will promote paid apps. While the center will support in-app purchases and developers will receive 70 percent of profits from Facebook Credits spent on their apps, Facebook also will give developers the option to offer paid apps for a flat fee. The company is starting a beta program for the paid app approach and has invited interested developers to join the program.

The cross-platform strategy is an inclusive one. The center will direct requests for iOS and Android apps to the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Play, but developers will need to integrate a Facebook login and APIs to their apps.

The opportunity to distribute apps built with HTML5 is likely to be a very welcome one for many developers. The developer community has been steadily increasing its use of HTML5 to build Web-based applications and the distribution of HTML5-based apps via the App Center creates a marketplace for these apps. While it is still early in the evolution of HTML5, the App Center will help drive an inventory of products and help HTML5 apps gain traction as an alternative to iOS and Android. It also adds a new degree of seriousness to the interest in HTML5 that Mozilla brought to the market earlier this year when it revealed its plans to launch an HTML5-based mobile OS and app store. Facebook's strategy puts new pressure on Mozilla, too, to get its market up and running.

Facebook is encouraging developers to begin filing the forms needed to get listed in the App Center and so their apps can be included when the center launches. Developers can find good motivation to do that: it's well known that joining a developer program early yields advantages such as better visibility for a product and often opportunities to work closely with the principals involved.

Facebook itself could use a lot of mobile developers immediately. The company last week acknowledged in SEC filings related to its IPO that it has not been able to generate any meaningful revenue from the use of the Facebook mobile products it now has. Mobile has become very important to Facebook, and developers may be able to benefit from that.--Peggy

APIs are an innovation engine for developers

Peggy Albright — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:13:27 -0400

APIs, or application programmable interfaces, are an important tool for mobile developers because they can help them create more useful applications, enhance their products and shorten the development cycle.

So it's no surprise that the universe of APIs is expanding, and rapidly. ProgrammableWeb, which tracks the API market and provides a comprehensive API repository, has more than 5,800 APIs in its directory today, double the number it had in its inventory a year ago. Companies are releasing about 70 APIs each week. The mobile app phenomenon is stimulating that growth because frequently when a mobile app user clicks a button or sends or retrieves data, an API is engaged.

"The number one driver of the release of APIs is mobile," said John Musser, founder of ProgrammableWeb.

Twitter has perhaps had the most success offering its APIs to developers. Twitters APIs are used in hundreds of third-party apps and drive more API traffic daily than any other company's implementations. National Public Radio is another example of a successful mobile API strategy: Within 18 months of using its API to launch Android and iOS apps, more than half of the traffic on NPR's web site originated from mobile devices, Musser said.

Operators want developers to use their APIs
For a couple years now mobile operators have wanted developers to adopt APIs that access network capabilities for carrier billing, messaging, and location-awareness, to compete with over-the-top applications sold by Internet firms. Operators also want to drive new revenues with API-based apps. These efforts have been intensifying. The steady stream of APIs entering the market is creating new competition for developer attention, putting more pressure on operators to gain interest in their APIs.

Greg Brail, CIO of Apigee

Most mobile operators now have API programs for developers and the programs are growing, said Greg Brail, CIO of Apigee, which provides API infrastructure and management services for organizations like AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) and the Wholesale Application Community.

If an operator does not yet have an API program they will before long. They have to, Brail said. "They want to be more than a carrier of bits. They want to unlock the power of their networks," he added.

The Wholesale Application Community, a global alliance of operators offering a cross-operator API platform, launched an in-app operator billing API in February that can be used by developers to facilitate mobile payments for virtual goods, music and games on any participating network. The API launched with eight operators, including AT&T. Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) and T-Mobile are members, but they have not yet launched services.

The WAC has about 30 developers engaged with the program, said Erik de Kroon, vice president of devices and products for the organization. To date, European and U.S. developers have created 10 apps that already have launched or soon will launch in both markets.

The pace of commercialization is not strong for this platform, which makes it possible to create and launch apps within days. But developers want to introduce their apps when all operators in a given country have launched, and that's not possible yet, de Kroon said. He said the WAC expects to have all member operators in the U.S. launched later this year. In some Western European countries, full operator coverage will be available this summer.

Hackathons and streamlined tools
In the meantime, operators are pushing independently to recruit developers to use their APIs. Among other strategies, they are using hackathons. AT&T Mobility and Facebook co-hosted a hackathon last weekend that introduced new tools and APIs that developers can use to add carrier billing and SMS to their apps.

Don Pitt, VP of Marketing at Verious

Operators are also working with API vendors to make working with these technologies as easy as possible for developers, according to Don Pitt, vice president of marketing at Verious.

Verious offers an online API marketplace and management service to simplify use of APIs, which can often require sophisticated development when applied in mobile applications. Verious is turning APIs into pre-built software components that are easy to install. It is also handling business agreements for developers. The company will offer some components and associated premium data services for free if the API-enabled apps can be supported by advertising.

Pitt said that Verious is working with a number of operators to turn their APIs into components to spur adoption by developers. These components are often offered for free because the application will drive revenues for the operator.

"Operators want to increase the adoption of their APIs by developers. They want to provide more benefits to developers and that's where mobile components come in," Pitt said.

The latest API announcements
This week the GSMA launched its GSMA OneAPI Gateway with three Canadian operators. The gateway offers application developers a standard set of APIs that make it easy to launch applications for mobile customers regardless of the device or network they are using. Carriers participating in the program include Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications and Telus.

Operators are continuing to find ways to expose network assets through APIs. The Small Cell Forum today released a set of APIs that developers can use to create mobile apps that access operator small cells. The organization said the APIs can help developers deliver consistent location- and presence-related services that complement existing location technologies, especially in indoor and dense urban locations.

The universe of companies participating in the API ecosystem is also expanding. Last week IBM jumped on the bandwagon, announcing API services for enterprises that want to developers to create mobile, mobile and cloud applications. IBM's involvement "shows that this is really a technology concept that is here to stay," Apigee said.

Business models vary
However, there are some things to consider when working with APIs. Businss models vary, for example, and developers will need to determine which approach is best for them. ProgrammableWeb has identified 16 business models --some are free and some are paid. Some business models include multiple mechanisms for generating revenue, including revenue sharing or indirect payments based on traffic or other factors. The indirect model is the largest group, Musser said.

Developers do need to be alert for unexpected costs. Certain API providers can charge a monthly fee, for example, which scales with the number of API calls from an app. Many developers have no idea how many API calls will result if they add a new API-dependent feature to their app and can be surprised by this if they don't prepare for it.

JiWire: 37% of consumers are using mobile wallets

Peggy Albright — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:00:00 -0400

Consumers are becoming more comfortable with mobile wallets. According to Mobile Audience Insights Report from JiWire, a location-based mobile advertising company that surveys consumers who access public Wi-Fi hotspots, 37 percent of consumers have used a mobile wallet from their smartphones or tablets in the past three months.

PayPal is the most popular payment service with 46 percent of mobile wallet users, 29 percent use Amazon and 18 percent use Google Wallet (NASDAQ:GOOG).

Click here to view other key slides from this report.

The firm also evaluated use of location-based services and found that the vast majority of business executives frequently use location-based apps. For example, 73 percent of small business owners are regular location-based app users, with 57 percent using the apps daily and 16 percent using them weekly. And 70 percent of C-level executives are routine users, with 56 percent using location apps daily and 14 percent using them weekly.

The most popular location-based app categories are travel, weather and social networking. Booking reservations is the most popular location service. Finding nearby businesses is also popular.

For more:
- read the release

It's time to treat the mobile device as the "prime" screen

Peggy Albright — Mon, 07 May 2012 12:08:57 -0400

Common sense holds that a first-rate mobile application will give the consumer an optimum user experience. That experience is influenced not only by a product's technical features but also by the general context in which the application and the device are used.

Developers need to eliminate the PC or the TV as a reference point and instead dream up truly original, mobile ways of engaging with information and services.

Alan Knitowski, CEO and chairman of Phunware, gave FierceDeveloper a startling example of why this is important now. He said that recently a major TV brand found that 50 percent of its core demographic had never seen one of its leading TV shows on the TV and that half of the target audience was watching the show on mobile devices.

Behavioral shifts like this are happening all over the place. For example, teenagers are abandoning console games for mobile games. In a survey of teens conducted by Piper Jaffray, 63 percent of the teens said they are willing to play games on their mobile phones, compared to 33 percent a year ago. Nearly 66 percent of teens said they've lost interest in console games because they don't offer the same opportunities for social interaction as mobile games. The research firm said that console games are facing unprecedented competition from tablets and smartphones, as well as connected TVs.

ABI Research recently projected that apps designed for young children may propel media tablets to become the de facto replacement of personal DVD players, particularly in cars. In 2016, it expects users to download nearly one billion media tablets apps for young children.

Consumers are shopping more from their devices. IBM reported last week that online shopping originating from mobile devices represented 13.3 percent of all online sales in March, up from 7 percent a year ago.

Add these together with other, similar trends from other mobile segments, and it's clear that the market that is using applications is nothing like it was a year or so ago. Regardless of whether this qualifies mobile as the so-called "first screen," developers should begin treating it like it is.

Knitowski suggests that developers really think hard about the user interface and user experience to make sure the device fulfills the core purpose of the application being developed and that each feature of the app support that core purpose as well.

Developers will still have to consider a realm of issues, such as how their applications perform on smart phones vs. tablets and other devices, and perhaps how content will interact if projected to other, larger screens. They will also want to pay attention to what's going on in the market to identify trends indicating where needs for new types of applications might emerge.

But the main thing is to turn off the old ways of thinking and open the imagination to completely new things.--Peggy

The best new apps of April 2012

Jason Ankeny — Mon, 07 May 2012 10:54:54 -0400

Mobile apps will remain a universal obsession only as long as they continue to captivate, surprise and entertain consumers. Fortunately, the app ecosystem shows no signs of slowing up: Innovative and immersive mobile experiences are entering app stores every day. Each month, FierceMobileContent will look at the best and brightest, spotlighting the new apps that you need to download to your smartphone ASAP. Looking for some assistance assembling your App Store or Google Play shopping list? Here are April's finest--the best mobile apps of the month. Special report

Publishers must cater to casual gamers to stay relevant in increasingly crowded market

Lon Otremba — Tue, 01 May 2012 08:58:12 -0400

Lon Otremba

As tablets, smartphones and netbooks proliferate, casual games are now becoming the portal for millions to connect to their social networks via the mobile Web without having to leave their games community or jump from app to app or game to game.

Thanks to developers who have perfected HTML5 and made advancements in the mobile browser, the casual game experience is now an "always on" pervasive state of operating on the mobile Web. Games are now the content leader across all mobile Web publishing. Soon, as next-generation aspects of social gaming kick in, casual games will become more addictive, more dynamic and easier for millions of users to access.

We have one of the largest gaming communities on the mobile Web, and it has been one of the stickiest online destinations for social casual games since 2005. Given the impact of HTML5 as a dynamic new technology and the convergence of mobile, social and gaming, we decided it was time for a rebranding that shifted away from our former company name "Cellufun" toward a name that more accurately reflects the fresh, technologically advanced approach our company is taking with its newest games, its overall user experience and our brand strategy going forward.

As of April 2012, we are now called "Tylted," a name that came from a crowdsourcing contest where we asked our user community to submit and vote on a new name. Over 30,000 participated in the content and came up with "Tylted" upon which we are now building our brand. "Tylted" illustrates where we sit at the hub of social networking, casual games and the mobile Web.

Indicative of the rebrand is our new title CuBug, a Tetris-style tile matching game that engages players with bots that capture bugs then hatch into virtual features like wallpaper that then can be gifted to other players in rainbow colors. While simple to play and addictively engaging, we think it also represents a leap in game capability for the mobile Web.

Among other things, it has full swipe/touch capability, is fully compatible with any HTML5-based device (phone, tablet or desktop) and is completely cloud-based so you can start a game on one device and switch to another. CuBug is also the kind of game that can monetize easily because of its social media and brand integration components within and around the game. Advertisers can engage with a highly-targeted audience of players chatting, comparing scores, exchanging points, customizing virtual goods and celebrating special occasions.

The addiction to gaming is not letting up yet, while gaming continues its 24/7 occupation on the mobile Web, there remains a massive audience of untapped casual gamers. We know they are out there. Typically 5 percent of users account for 85 percent of revenue from virtual goods traded in-game. There's another 25 percent of gamers who find appeal in casual games but don't play as often on the mobile Web.

As the games market becomes more crowded with new apps, state of the art mobile devices, players and advertisers, how do we stand out? We had to take hard look at our position and play to our strengths.

We had a foundation in HTML5 which gave us the ability to rapidly publish customized version of games that offered brands and agencies some of the best product placement and monetization opportunities for in-game advertising. We already give brands the option of integrating into different parts of the game from chat rooms and to score comparisons to customized virtual goods. But that's not enough.

Going forward, our success will largely depend on three factors: 1) shifting our virtual currency model 2) transforming casual users into avid users and 3) establishing a direct relationship with advertisers by delivering the measurable units that matter to them.

What is the best paradigm for audience building, engagement and monetization in the casual games future? For Tylted, it will mean focusing more on monetizing our virtual goods business that is quickly gaining traction beyond our hardcore fans. As a publisher it's our job to deliver the best possible in-game experience that will keep users across the mobile web occupied and engaged. We rely on our developers to create the games that can keep players occupied for hours. The use of anonymous personal avatars, in-game chat and the ability to share virtual currency have been critical factors to our success and we manage them well. Now next generation aspects such as geo-location, connections, touch, virtual currency and 3D animation within the mobile browser are creating a new paradigm for developers to work with while providing behavioral insights about gamer motivation, decision-making and brand loyalty. That's why developers have "hero" status from our perspective.

A major factor in the ongoing success of Tylted is that each gamer must create an anonymous (and this is key) personal avatar that reflects personal interests and enables them to inhabit a virtual community where they can make friends, compete, have conversations, earn currency, court and even get married. Some of these players are even planning a funeral to say goodbye to Cellufun, on May 7.

Putting the user first, creating new revenue sources, leveraging HTML5 and evolving along with the developments in the mobile browsers have been key factors in the success of our business and the reasons why Tylted will continue to be one of the top social games companies on the mobile Web. How well we embrace the mobile web will determine a precedent for games companies, consumers, brands and content creators to do the same.

Lon Otremba is the CEO of Tylted (formerly Cellufun).

Meet the new FierceDeveloper

Jason Nelson — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:32:49 -0400

To keep up with the fast-changing developer marketplace, FierceDeveloper has a new look. We've created a new newsletter design that features in-depth articles on all the latest technologies and issues facing developers. We also are working with experts in the field--industry analysts and technology leaders that will be writing columns discussing the latest technology developments and providing tips to developers about how they can overcome some of their biggest obstacles.

We also have a new By the Numbers section, where we will highlight the latest research and analysis on operating systems, app stores, devices, navigation, discovery and more.

I hope you like the new FierceDeveloper newsletter. Please feel free to send me your feedback.

Best,

Jason Nelson
Publisher, FierceDeveloper

Nokia: Apps in Windows Phone Marketplace top 80,000 and growing

Peggy Albright — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:10:40 -0400

Marco Argenti

with Nokia's Senior Vice President of Developer Experience and Marketplace Marco Agrenti

Nokia is fighting to gain a share of the U.S. smartphone market, and the April launch of its flagship Lumia 900 device has been a vital, first step in this direction. The device has enjoyed a positive reception, although the company is not discussing sales figures. Recently, FierceDeveloper editor Peggy Albright talked with Marco Argenti, senior vice president of developer experience and marketplace at Nokia, about the importance of developers to the Lumia product and to Nokia's success in the market. The following is an edited version of the conversation.

FierceDeveloper: The Lumia 900 is now on the market. What are you observing from customers' use of its applications?

Argenti: One thing that is very encouraging for us is that we're seeing a lot of momentum around some of the exclusive apps and the unique apps that we're bundling with the device.

Some apps that we developed in-house, like Nokia Drive and Creative Studio, are actually at the top of the list when it comes to usage. We've also been getting lots of great feedback from Nokia Maps and the Nokia Transit application. Those have all been extremely well received.

Another bundled app is called App Highlights, which provides a view of recommended apps and a starter kit for people who are coming to Windows Phone for the first time, and that has been seen tremendous pickup.

And in general, we have particular focus in making sure we engage with local developers to create local apps and that we make those apps available to customers around the world. App Highlights, for example, curates apps on a country by country basis so the starter kit might look differently in Europe than it will look in the U.S. So there is an element of specific, local curation that is driving users to look for more local apps.

FierceDeveloper: How important is the developer community to the success of these devices and to Nokia's business overall?

Argenti: It is extremely important because, of course, apps are one of the fundamental parts of a smartphone experience. Developers are absolutely at the center of our strategy.

We've been focusing specifically to build a winning ecosystem around Windows Phone since day one of the partnership with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). A year ago when we signed the agreement with Microsoft, there were around 7,000 apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace and now there are more than 80,000. The weekly submission of applications has increased by more than 300 percent. We feel there has been an inflexion point every time we have issued an announcement highlighting the opportunity for developers to work with Nokia to really broaden their abilities to distribute in many countries around the world.

The growth is also due to the fact that we've been working very closely with Microsoft in a lot of practical actions to engage with developers to support our strategy. We announced in Nokia World that we would seed more than 25,000 Lumia devices to developers, and as of today we've seeded about 17,000. Those are all part of the developer program and come with developer support.

We do a lot of local engagements. Our calendar has about 600 developer events worldwide from January through June this year. We are hosting more than 100 developer events for Windows Phone in North America alone. A lot of those are driven by Nokia, and a lot are driven by both Microsoft and Nokia.

We participated in the AT&T (NYSE:T) Developer Summit at CES, where more than 60 percent of applications developed were Windows Phone apps, and at the South by Southwest developer day 1,100 developers attended.

It is a lot of work and both organizations are really putting a lot of effort into this. The result in terms of both quality and quantity of apps submitted is quite encouraging at this point.

FierceDeveloper: Microsoft is said to be paying developers to make apps for Windows Phone. Is Nokia supporting this strategy or contributing to it?

Argenti: What I want to say is that we do support developers very closely so they can create things that are really unique for us. And when I say support, I am referring to a number of things. For example, the Metro UI for Windows Phone is quite unique, and we want them to use it to the fullest. We help developers by providing design clinics and in some other cases we help with training and in some other cases it is support.

We try to have as deep a relationship as possible with the developers and provide concrete support, for example providing free devices, and we essentially are facilitating that. Nokia really wants to provide that form of support to developers in exchange for trying to make something unique and differentiating for the platform.

FierceDeveloper: How would you characterize the universe of Windows Phone apps, and what types of apps are you striving for?

Argenti: The short answer is locally relevant apps. That is absolutely at the top of our interest. We are striving to have apps that are catering to specific users, specific brands, specific contexts that are really unique locally.

And the other angle we're striving for is uniqueness and differentiation. For example, ESPN apps can use Live Tiles to show a specific player on the home screen or to display sports updates in real-time. These really leverage the capabilities of the platform.

So local and unique are really what we're trying to go for when we develop for the phone.

FierceDeveloper: What are you doing to recruit developers in the United States?

Argenti: First and foremost are the developer activities I mentioned earlier and the 100 events we're hosting from January and through June. That's the concrete way we're approaching and growing the developer base in North America.

And of course, developers are also very responsive to the media message overall. As you've seen, the launch of Lumia 900 has been one of the largest launches in the history of the smartphone.

The media campaigns and the intensity with which we're introducing the phone in the market are having a very important additive effect of attracting developers. So we have a strong message, we support a lot of events and a lot of local engagements in various states. That's what's behind the phenomenal growth we have in the applications.

FierceDeveloper: How many people on your staff are working in your developer program?

Argenti: We have a fairly large team. I'm not sure if we have disclosed the number of employees, but it is hundreds of people, and we have local offices in several countries, and in every office there are people who are fully dedicated to developer support. And that is the core of this answer: It is not just one huge global team. In fact, most of the engagements are actually local.

FierceDeveloper: How can developers monetize their apps when working with you?

Argenti: The number one item on the agenda when we talk to developers is how to ensure driving a business opportunity. We're actually educating and advising developers on how to best distribute and monetize their apps around the world, how to identify segments that might be interested in a specific app, or the right price point for the various markets and so on.

So there is an element of ensuring that developers make the best possible return on their investments. We have a business development toolkit that we are progressively rolling out. It resonates really well with developers who are used to thinking about an SDK to build apps because this is a BDK to distribute and monetize apps. The BDK includes analytics, information about user preferences around the world, design clinics and advice on how to write a good description when publishing an app.

And of course we also have some interesting assets, and one of them is operator billing. We currently have operator billing support with 146 operators in 50 markets. And when we have introduced operator billing, we have seen increasing monetization and conversion rate increases of 300 to 500 percent.

Operator billing is supported by the Windows Phone platform, and in the U.S. and other markets this is available through all operators. In other markets, that integration is under way. So that can be quite a winning formula, especially for apps sold in countries where app monetization is problematic.

FierceDeveloper: Nokia and Microsoft launched a $24 million initiative at Aalto University in Finland to help students and entrepreneurs with app development. How important is this and do you plan to launch similar programs in other regions?

Argenti: It is very important for us for two reasons. One is because of the importance of Finland itself as a developer community. There are a lot of high-quality developers in the country and we want to really help them come up with the greatest concepts and turn them into great apps.

The other element is that it is really a lab. We definitely intend to replicate it if it is successful. The university has curriculum and the students; the technology aspects and platform support come from Microsoft and Nokia; and of course Nokia serves as the device manufacturer and also as the distribution channel to bring those apps to market.

Speech technologies offer innovative way to enhance and differentiate apps

Peggy Albright — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 05:18:05 -0400

Speech recognition technologies have advanced much in the past couple years, crossing some important business and technical milestones that now make it possible for mobile developers to add these features to their applications. Developers who are seeking new and innovative ways to differentiate their products should pay attention to the innovation opportunities speech can bring.

Generally, speech technology has become popular and appreciated by the market in large part thanks to Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) virtual assistant, Siri, which has made speech-enabled interactions personally compelling to consumers.

But speech is also considered by its advocates to be a mature technology now and has sufficiently improved in accuracy and performance to justify expanded use in the market. Speech technologies exploit the conveniences and cost-advantages that cloud-based technologies provide, and they benefit from widespread consumer access to mobile broadband networks and smart devices. The speech engines themselves--through ongoing customer usage and constant innovation by the scientists who build these technologies--now have vocabularies of millions of words, the ability to engage with natural and conversational language and even to figure out behavioral and other contexts in which consumers interact with their speech-enabled apps.

Dan Miller, senior analyst and founder at Opus Research, highly recommends that developers give speech a try. "Recognition of what people are saying and recognition of their intent, or understanding their context, are improving to the point that it really does make sense to add spoken conversational options to your app," he said.

Technology options available to developers are also broadening. AT&T (NYSE:T), for example, announced earlier this month that in June it will begin offering developers tools to integrate its AT&T Watson speech and language engine into mobile apps. The company will release APIs for a range of applications, revealing a company strategy to get speech involved in everything from mobile search to TV guide interactions.

The first APIs will focus on Web search, local business search, question and answer apps, voice mail to text, SMS, the U-verse TV electronic programming guide and dictation. The company has more APIs coming that will extend its speech features to gaming and social media applications, among others.

"This is the beginning of a long road of very exciting set of APIs. Ultimately we are really trying to make speech pervasive and ubiquitous across all apps," said Mazin Gilbert, associate vice president of technical research at AT&T.

The AT&T Watson engine has been used by AT&T for years as part of its telecommunications services with customers. It has been used in some mobile voice search applications. One recent innovative app is the AT&T Translator for iOS and Android phones. This app can translate conversations for people who are speaking different languages and do this in real time.

Nuance Communications began offering developers access to its speech technologies a year ago when it launched its Dragon Mobile SDK. It has 10,000 developers in its program, which is called NDEV Mobile.

Matt Revis, vice president of the handset business at Nuance Mobile, said developers are coming up with new and exciting apps every week. He gave some examples that illustrate the creative thinking that is going into these apps.

Amazon just launched a Dragon-powered speech application for iOS and Android phones, called "Price Check." The app is for people who are shopping in a retail stores and want to evaluate the price of a product. The shopper can speak the name of a product he or she is considering, and the application will display prices for that product from Amazon and other online merchants.

Kraft Foods recently used Dragon technology to add voice input feature to its cooking application, called iFood Assistant. As part of this application, now available on the iPhone, a customer can speak the name of a dish, such as "chicken casserole," and the application launches a search and gives the user a recipe along with a shopping list.

These few examples barely brush the surface of what advocates envision for speech-enabled apps. While the technology gives developers a new interface to innovate and compete with, success will be just as difficult to achieve in this application environment as it is with traditional apps.

"The successful applications will be creative," said Bill Meisel, president of TMA Associates. "Creativity is a skill that takes a certain type of personality and type of work. Creativity is what makes Siri so successful," he said.

As sophisticated as speech technologies have become, all systems make mistakes sometimes, and developers need to consider the potential impact of occasional failures on the particular apps they're developing. To prepare for this, for example, developers should program multiple options for getting results from a query if there is an error. If a virtual assistant needs to ask a user for clarification of a request, give the assistant some friendly and clever language to use when offering to help. Build in assurances so that the user will find success with the app.--Peggy

Evans Data: Developers are moving away from native platforms for app development

Peggy Albright — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:35:09 -0400

Mobile developers in North America are steadily increasing their use of Web technologies and steadily decreasing their use of native platforms when working on mobile apps. In fact, new research from Evans Data strongly suggests that trend lines showing developer adoption rates for the alternative programming models are starting to converge.

The firm recently surveyed North American mobile developers and asked each respondent to state the percent of apps they work on today that are "truly native vs. a shell that launches in a web browser." It also asked developers to project their use of the two approaches for the next year and the next two years.

Evans Data found a significant difference in the use of these two approaches today, with native programming methods highly favored over web-based methods, but the difference between the two will narrow substantially during the next two years. The firm also found that the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for native apps is trending downward at a rate of -4.5 percent, while the CAGR for web apps is trending upward at a rate of 3.75 percent.

Developers naturally want to target as many platforms as they can, easily and efficiently, and findings from these types of studies can help them plan their projects and development strategies accordingly.

Click here to view a larger version of this exclusive chart from Evans Data to FierceDeveloper.

"Trends within these data indicate that, at some stage in the relatively near future, more developers will gravitate toward cross-platform development using web technologies than those writing natively for devices," Ben Hanley, senior product manager at Evans Data, told FierceDeveloper.

Sensor-based apps offer lots of potential but are hindered by fragmentation

Peggy Albright — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:49:11 -0400

Sensors are ubiquitous in mobile devices and they should inspire a world of innovative applications based on their special abilities to detect motion, touch, light and environmental conditions. But there is a serious gap between the capabilities sensors can enable in devices today and the actual use of these components in mobile applications.

Sony's Xperia sola features "floating touch" navigation.

In general, problems like lack of standard tools and fragmentation in how sensors are accessed and configured for use in devices make working with these features pretty difficult for developers. "I bleed for all the application developers that are trying to develop a cool UI," Carlos Puig, principal engineer at Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), said at an event on developing sensor-based apps last week.

The event, sponsored by the Wireless Communications Alliance and held at Qualcomm's offices in Silicon Valley, drew hundreds of engineers and developers looking to incorporate these components into mobile applications. They got an earful.

Sensors in smartphones are increasing
Today, roughly 30 percent to 40 percent of smartphones include a combination of the most popular sensors: an accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, optical sensor, touch sensor and camera with better than 3-megapixel resolution. These are used in addition to the routine sensors, such as the radio, microphone and others that provide basic functions. By 2015, more than 50 percent of smartphones will have these popular components, according to Tristan Joo, co-chair of the mobile special interest group and a board member for the WCA.

Despite the availability of these sensors in devices today, applications hardly ever use them. Of the hundreds of thousands of apps available in app stores today, fewer than 0.5 percent employ sensors, Joo said. That's right: less than 0.5 percent. And the most common sensor used is the compass.

Qualcomm's Puig said that the reason sensors are rarely incorporated into applications is because it is difficult for developers to navigate the dozens of sensor vendors, sensor product lines and application development tools. In addition, OEMs, when installing sensors in devices, make their own decisions on how the sensors should respond to variables that can influence the design of an app, such as the quality of ambient light or proximity values that trigger a phone to prepare for a voice call when the phone is held close to the face.

Another problem is that the sensor APIs available with high-level operating systems are hard to understand because the documentation is very limited and because their use is dependent on manufacturer implementations.

Standardization is necessary
Some type of standardization is needed, Puig said, to allow creativity in this business to go forward. He said that Qualcomm wants the industry to come up with common APIs that will support basic sensor functions while allowing companies to introduce proprietary enhancements that can add special features to an application. Qualcomm is willing to take the lead to make this happen. It has not decided what type of forum would be best to achieve a standard approach for sensor APIs, but would prefer an informal organization that can proceed quickly.

"I inspire you to take this on for the benefit of the industry and for the good of all the application developers," Puig said.

In addition to the current challenges associated with sensor development, it is hard for many to imagine how sensors can actually be used to create new user experiences with mobile devices. Sensor vendors are trying to generate imaginative use of their components.

Examples of sensor-based apps
Sensirion, a vendor of temperature and humidity sensors, showed off an application, called AirTouch, that allows a consumer to use their breath to interact with their smartphone. The user lightly blows on the phone when a call comes in and the temperature and humidity in their breath trigger the sensor to answer the call. The sensor can also be applied to take pictures with a phone: just hold up the phone, frame the picture, blow on the device and the sensor snaps the shutter. For consumers who are out snapping photos with their friends, the application would add a new and fun dimension to the common social experience of smartphone picture-taking. The applications generated a very enthusiastic response from the audience.

Gesture-based applications are stimulating innovative ideas for application development. One use of this idea, called "hover browsing," makes it possible for a device to respond to the user's hand or finger even though they are not touching the device. This is becoming available now on some devices. One example is the "floating touch" feature offered on the Sony Xperia sola device built with TrueTouch sensors from Cypress Semiconductor. Samsung also showed how sensors are employed to enable use of the gesture-based "Sensor" music player on the Galaxy Note.

Motion is believed to be a killer app according one vendor, Kevin Shaw, who is chief technology officer at Sensor Platforms. He said he believes motion is "the hidden interface" that will make it possible for a device to interpret how a device is being used and react accordingly. By being aware of the context in which a device is being used, for example, a tablet could automatically shift into photo mode when a consumer picks up the tablet and holds it up in front of their face.

"It allows a whole computing device to feel natural and intuitive and interface in a way that makes sense," he said.

These examples just brush the surface of the innumerable applications that sensors will enable in consumer and business markets that range from gaming to healthcare, to weather monitoring, not to mention location-based services. While it is clearly too soon to see how the industry responds to Qualcomm's call for common tools, developers can reach out to developer groups if they want to get started. Samsung and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), for example, are eager for developers to work with their firms to create sensor-based apps. They invited developers to contact their organizations to learn more.

Enterprise to mobile developers: We need business apps

Peggy Albright — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 02:29:13 -0400

The business world is finally embracing mobile applications. Companies realize that their employees want mobile business applications that are intuitive, friendly and as engaging as the consumer apps they use every day. This trend could offer real revenue potential for developers because business apps can command premium prices and produce better income for developers compared to consumer apps.

"There is no question that there is money behind this," said Stephen Drake, program vice president for mobility and telecom at IDC. "There are definitely higher margins. The volumes may not be there yet, but definitely the pricing is there for enterprise applications if it is something that is of interest."

Developers are increasingly focusing on business apps. According to a developer survey that IDC conducted with Appcelerator in the first quarter of 2012, more than 40 percent of developers were working mostly on business apps during the survey, up from about 30 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010. The proportion focusing on consumer apps has dropped from about 70 percent of developers in the fourth quarter of 2010 to less than 60 percent in the first quarter of 2012.

Participants from throughout the ecosystem also continue to make commitments to mobile enterprise applications. Here are four announcements from just the past two weeks:

AT&T (NYSE:T) launched a mobile app storefront for small businesses that are seeking wireless applications for workforce management, mobile office, fleet management, mobile payment and other functions.
AppCentral, formerly Ondeego, launched a multi-platform mobile application management solution to help companies set up enterprise app stores and manage corporate apps on company and employee-owned smartphones and tablets.
HP introduced a service platform that communications service providers can use to help their enterprise customers set up app stores to distribute and manage mobile apps for their employees.
The enterprise software firm SAP announced that it is acquiring Syclo, a leading mobile app developer for the enterprise, to meet the growing demand for mobile workforce software and services. SAP also partnered with Adobe, Appcelerator and Sencha to help it create an open mobile app development framework that will attract developers to integrate SAP data into innovative third-party apps, which run on its mobile platform.

Of course, developing mobile apps for the enterprise market requires a different type of thinking compared to consumer app development. For example, mobile enterprise apps will need to integrate with back-end systems and corporate data, and they will need to meet stringent security standards. The app will have to help a company improve productivity or customer relationships or serve other key business objectives. Development will likely take longer, because enterprises are careful to introduce applications and will often conduct pilot studies with internal staff before introducing a new application company-wide. Developers will have to look in different directions to find partners and learn their specialties because the enterprise sector has its own universe of software vendors and platform providers.

But the "consumerization of IT," which describes enterprise acceptance of technologies that originated in the consumer sector, could work to the benefit of mobile developers, who learned their craft in the consumer environment and can now apply their skills in this newer market to help companies create more compelling business apps that run on smart phones and tablets.

In fact, enterprises now recognize that their employees, customers and business partners want slick business apps that can live up to the experiences they enjoy on their consumer devices, Drake said. He suggested that mobile app developers may find that their creativity and design expertise is welcomed by firms that are trying to add pizazz to enterprise apps.

One strategy mobile developers want to consider, if they haven't already, is reaching out to mobile operators and joining their developer programs. Many small and large companies have close relationships with their telecommunications service providers and seek them out for services and expertise. And many leading operators have established app stores by now for distributing applications to the enterprise market.--Peggy