December 17th, 2009 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »
Who doesn't know Trip Hawkins? He founded a mammoth in the gaming industry called EA, a console called the 3DO and this year, as CEO of Digital Chocolate, he invented the Omni Gamer!
The Market in 2009
The year 2009 was the first big year in the West for the mobile web. This phenomenon is old news in Japan and Korea but other mobile markets are only now showing web characteristics as led by devices like the iPhone. We had our first year with the app store phenomenon and it was a stellar beginning for us with 50 million downloads across a catalog of 50 games. We had 6 different games hit # 1 on the Apple App Store and another 6 that ranked in the Top 5. Rollercoaster Rush was our top brand and was featured in Business Week as one of the hottest game apps.
The Market in 2010
The coming year will be a transition period with many speed bumps but will set the stage for enormous growth in mobile web games in 2011. In addition to continuing Apple growth, the Android platform will see explosive device growth but will be held back by billing issues, notably Google’s senseless refund policy that makes it foolish to ever pay for anything on an Android. Major carriers including T-Mobile, Verizon and Vodafone will make progress with one-touch billing and improved app store environments. Blackberry will continue to grow as a consumer platform and Windows Mobile will continue to struggle.
Digital Chocolate in 2010
Digital Chocolate will continue to grow our leadership position as the consumer favorite for mobile game quality and originality. We will further enhance this position with the release of more social games, including the debut of our first Facebook social game, MMA Pro Fighter (launch date December 17, 2009) and the launch of our NanoStars virtual item platform for social games.
