We were doing some marketing research and uncovered some interesting info related to hand-held gaming. It almost seems to be a hands down choice to focus on iphone at this time. Seems counterintuitive but…
Why is the iPhone platform attractive?
3/17/2009 – 17 million iPhones sold, selling at around 7 million units per month
3/17/2009 – 13 million iPod Touch sold
4/9/2010 – 450,000 iPads sold
This estimates the total market size at around 80+ million users. Furthermore, In-Stat estimates the total US smartphone market to reach 100 million users by 2013 with Apple holding between 33% to 49% of that market. Apple’s app store is the best distribution opportunity for independent developers and generates $500 million is sales per month.
From the Apple marketing event held 4/8/2010 we learned:
Over 85 million iPod Touch/iPhones have been sold (vs. 70 million DS and 35 million PSP). In less than a year (2011) the iPhone/iPod platform will surpass all other hand-held game platforms combined, as it already surpasses the size of any one console.
50,000 games in the App Store (over 180,000 total apps) – contrast this to 4,300 DS games and 2,500 PSP games, the Apple game market is almost 8 times bigger than all other hand-held gaming platforms combined.
Developing for Apple is easier than any other gaming platform – $99 developer program vs. thousands of dollars for licensed dev kits from the other console manufacturers.
Publishing and distribution is much easier with the App Store, vs. no way to do it independently on the other hand-held platforms.
iPhone OS4 Announced
Apple announced a new upgrade to their software platform which will address two key areas based on their discovery that they inadvertently invented a new hand-held gaming platform:
- iAd – a new mobile ad API, sharing 60% ad revenue with developers
- Gaming Center – much like XBLA, new API for scores, leader boards, achievements, player matching, friends
Tags: ds, game development, handled, ipad, iphone, ipod touch, mobile, psp
