5 app stores under the microscope

Five app stores under the microscope Stuart Dredge

Who am I?
UK journalist covering mobile, games and digital entertainment
Mobile Entertainment / Music Ally
Pocket Gamer / Recombu / What Mobile
iPhone Games Bulletin
First job in games – Official Dreamcast Magazine
I wouldn’t get a job as a motivational speaker

Key ideas for today
Is there life beyond iPhone and its App Store?
Two contenders: Android and BlackBerry
Old handheld dogs learning new digital tricks
PSP Minis and DSiWare
The new breed of digital games developers
Cross-platform, independent, own-IP...

App Store – Key figures
Addressable base of 50 million
100k apps available (20k games)
More than 2bn downloads so far
iPhone games market worth $2.8bn by 2014 (DFC)
Avg user has spent $80 on 65 apps (AppsFire)
Avg user downloads 10/18 apps a month (AdMob)
90% browse and download on the device (AdMob)
30-day retention rate for games – 72% (Flurry)
But 90-day retention rate is 16%

App Store Games genre mix Source: Mobclix (Oct 2009)

App Store Top 100 Paid Games analysis (2-Nov-09)
Own-IP is popular – 58% of Top 100 Paid chart
Pricing pressure – Avg price in Top 100 is $2.89
But avg price in Top 10 is $2.09 (and $1.21 without Rock Band)
45 games cost $0.99
Rapid churn – 59% of Top 100 released since August
Level playing field – 47% indie, 38% publishers
EA has 13 titles in Top 100, Gameloft has 12
Glu, DChoc, Tapulous have 3 apiece

App Store Top 100 Paid Games - Brand

App Store Top 100 Paid Games - Price

App Store Top 100 Paid Games - Source

App Store – Key trends
Move to freemium model – free plus in-app payments
Social media marketing increasingly important
Plethora of social/community platforms
Fear of piracy – up to 95% first-week piracy rates
March of the clones and copyright disputes
New recommendation tools and services
Return of the publisher model
Advergames making a comeback with big brands

Android Market– Key figures
12+ Android phones available
12k apps in Android Market
$5m of app revenues a month (AdMob)
HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericsson...
Avg user has downloaded 40 apps (Sep 09)
80% of users download at least one app a week
Predicted 8m phones in 2009 (Strategy Analytics)
Currently 3.5% share of global smartphones (Canalys)
By 2012 – 76m phones and 14.5% share (Gartner)

Android Market – Genre mix (Oct 09) Source: AndroLib

Android Market Top 100 Paid Games analysis (2-Nov-09)
Note – based on HTC Hero, which is quite new
Own-IP dominant – 95% of Top 100 Paid chart
Cheaper than iPhone – Avg price in Top 100 is $2.67
But avg price in Top 10 is $3.42
20 games cost $0.99 – much more even spread
86% indie, 14% publisher
12 of the Top 100 are by named individuals
Gameloft 2, Glu 2, EA 0
Four of the top 20 are retro console emulators!

Android MarketTop 100 Paid Games - Brand

Android Market Top 100 Paid Games - Price

Android Market– Key trends
Developer unrest over dominance of free apps
Android 1.6 separated out paid games – reports of 50% uplift
Still concerns over short descriptions / technical gremlins
Huge excitement from handset firms and operators
BUT Huge excitement = huge fragmentation?
Google: “Developers don’t care...”
Native Android games yet to take off
Middleware helping bridge the gap – e.g. Airplay 4.0
Role of the operators remains to be seen

BlackBerry App World Key figures
32m BlackBerry subscribers (Sep 09)
Sold 8.3m devices in its last financial quarter
20.6% smartphone market share in Q3 09 (Canalys)
More than 80% of its new users were consumers
More than 3,100 apps now available
More than 900 games – 29.3% of the catalogue

BlackBerry App World – Genre mix (Nov-09) Source: BlackBerry App World webstore

BlackBerry App World Top 100 Paid Games analysis (2-Nov-09)
Own-IP big again – 62% of the chart
Average price in Top 100 is $4.77 – more than rivals
RIM’s $2.99 basement price is partly the reason
51% of the games cost $4.99
54% indie, 43% publisher – a more even split
Gameloft (14), EA (8), DChoc (6), Glu (5)
But also Concrete Software (9), Magmic (6)
Very casual towards the top of the chart – time killers

App World Top 100 Paid Games - Brand

App World Top 100 Paid Games - Price

App World Top 100 Paid Games - Source

BlackBerry App World – Key trends
So far – port J2ME games and charge a premium
RIM’s focus has been more on music and social apps
Not much talk about native / 3D BlackBerry gaming
BUT – very big in the North American market
RIM keen to get apps to use more platform features
Push in particular – see U2 Mobile Album

Top 10s – iPhone v Android v BlackBerry Date: 2 November 2009

PSP Minis – Key Facts
Launched in October alongside PSPgo
Also available for older PSPs though – 50m install base
19 games available so far on the UK store
All titles under 100MB in file size and under $9.99
Publishers set their own pricing
Sony promising 3-5 days QA / approval
No ability for multiplayer, DLC or updates
“ It’s something we will consider in the future”
Being presented explicitly as response to iPhone

PSP Minis –Analysis / Trends
Average price in UK: £3.49 ($5.79-ish)
Indie developers, mobile firms and... EA
Gameloft, Hands-On, Subatomic Studios
Other console firms not there at launch
16 of the 19 games are own-IP
Sony reported massive week-one downloads spike
Pricing has been compared negatively to iPhone...

Comparative Pricing: iPhone v PSP Minis

DSiWare – Key Facts
Launched alongside DSi in April 2009 (Europe / US)
Unlike PSP Minis, not available to older DS handhelds
Estimated install base of over 10 million devices
49 games/apps available in the UK right now
Uses DSi Points to buy games – 1,000pts for £9

DSiWare – Analysis / Trends
Games priced at 200, 500 and 800 points
Equivalent to £1.80, £4.50 and £7.20
33 of the 49 titles are from Nintendo
Spin-offs from existing brands – Kawashima, Animal Crossing...
Not always games – e.g. Mario Clock
Gameloft has five titles, Firemint bringing Flight Control
How does pricing compare to iPhone?...

Comparative Pricing: iPhone v DSiWare

What does it all mean?
iPhone has huge momentum with developers
BUT: downward pricing pressure
BUT: ferocious competition
Android and BlackBerry increasingly appealing
Big install bases and promotion from mobile operators
Less competition on their App Stores, and higher prices
Courting iPhone developers like billy-o
BUT: handset fragmentation rearing its head
BUT: not as powerful as iPhone... Yet
BUT: Less chance to benefit from social media buzz

What does it all mean?
PSP Minis and DSiWare offer route into handheld
Sony and Nintendo courting iPhone developers (sort of)
Ability to reuse assets – not a huge leap visually
Higher prices – and gamers who may be happy to pay them
BUT: not as easy as just porting games across
Don’t forget there are other app stores too
Ovi Store (Nokia)
Windows Marketplace for Mobile (Microsoft)
Palm App Catalog
Vodafone 360, Orange Application Store...

The Big Picture
Rise of the cross-platform digital games developer
(or publisher, obviously)
Mobile + handheld + web/Facebook + console
Example: Connect2Media and Go Go Rescue Squad
Example: Digital Chocolate and Tower Bloxx
Example: Subatomic Studios and Fieldrunners
Example: Firemint and Flight Control
Example: Gameloft and Brain Challenge
iPhone and Facebook emerging as hit creation platforms

Thanks!
Contact me: [email_address]
iPhone Games Bulletin: www.iphonegamesbulletin.com
This presentation will be online later today at www.mobile-ent.biz

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5 app stores under the microscope

by Stuart Dredge

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