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As indie game developers, it can be easy to become buried in our projects and lose sight of the big picture trends that are defining in our industry. The Voxel Agents conducted a survey of the major industry trends. Here is the summary of that research.
We spend a lot of time being all creative and fuzzy and nice here at The Voxel Agents, but often we need to stand back and have a good hard think about what's actually happening out there in the mobile games space.
To make sure we are all still on top of everything, I spent all of last week researching the mobile market space. I forgot everything I knew about iPhone and Android and had a good hard look at the information that is out there. Some of my findings certainly will be old news to you, and some might change what you thought you knew. So, if you're interested in the business (pronounced "biz-niz") side of being an indie game developer, check this stuff out:
You may think the iPad is a mobile device, but you'd be wrong.
43% of iPad owners use their iPad more than their desktop computer
28% say it's their primary computer
34% use it more than their TV
83% use it primarily while at home. Only 11% use it on the go.
iPad usage
Source:
http://gigaom.com/apple/admob-survey-shows-what-the-ipad-is-good-for/
Developers are flocking back to the iOS platform
According to a blog post by Flurry, in the first quarter of this year, about 65% of new projects were for iOS compared to a respectable 35% targeting Android. However, in the second quarter, iOS accounted for 75% of new projects, leaving just 25% for Android.
Flurry New Project Starts
It's worth considering this is based on Flurry's information alone, so it could equally be taken to mean that Flurry itself is proving to be more popular with iOS developers compared to Android dev's. This would mean Flurry's stats in the future are going to have a strong iOS bias.
Sources:
http://blog.flurry.com/bid/66618/iPad-2-and-Verizon-iPhone-Take-Some-Wind-Out-of-Android-s-Sail
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20079497-94/apple-regaining-momentum-with-developers-study-says/
Even though iOS has more Apps, Android has more free Apps
And that's not proportionately, that's in total. The paid model is just not working well on Android.
Number of available Applications on various platforms
This same report concludes that sometime this year, the total number of Android Apps will equal the number of iOS Apps (contradicting the story told by Flurry).
Sources:
http://www.distimo.com/blog/2011_04_the-battle-for-the-most-content-and-the-emerging-tablet-market/
http://makingmoneywithandroid.com/2011/05/google-android-marketplace-vs-apple-app-store-latest-report
iOS has served 15 Billion downloads compared to Androids 4.5 Billion
Given that the iOS App Store has been around for so much longer, this is not a bad showing from Android. However, the vast majority of the iOS downloads occurred in the face of competition from Android. The nail in the coffin: a greater proportion of those iOS downloads were paid.
App Store revenue growth
Those numbers should have six 0's after them too, by the wayAlso interesting: the average iOS user has downloaded 75 apps.
Sources:
http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-app-downloads-2011-7
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/07/11/ios_app_store_downloads_grow_61_average_app_price_up_14.html
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/07/android-4-5-billion-downloads/
Android App installs per day may be reaching parity with iOS installs
But more of the Android installs are free Apps. Clouding the picture is the fact that Apple has clamped down on "incentivized" installs which has removed a lot of "false" installs.
Source:
http://www.insidemobileapps.com/2011/07/14/android-ios-parity/
500,000 Android devices are activated every single day
Which means that in the time it took you to read this post another 30,000 Android users began on their merry way. What's less clear is how many of these devices really deserve to be considered competitors to iOS devices; presumably a large number of them are low powered devices designed only for basic email / web access and social networks.
Sources:
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/06/google-activates-500000-android-devices-daily/
and most importantly of all...
Android or iOS regardless, it's a very VERY tough market out there
There's only so much pie, you see. If we all got an equal slice of that pie, then we'd take home about $8,500 each, which is hardly "quit your day job" money. If you then consider that Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja are both very very fond of pie, then you start to realise that a lot of developers are going hungry (so to speak...).
iPhone market share of US Video Games
Sources:http://gigaom.com/apple/the-average-ios-app-publisher-isnt-making-much-money/
http://blog.flurry.com/bid/24163/Rise-of-the-New-Middle-Class-Indie-iPhone-App-Developers-Part-I
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/80-percent-of-paid-android-apps-are-downloaded-less-than-100-times-27-05-2011/
Thanks for reading this far. Hopefully this is useful information for you. Please let us know your thoughts on the state of the market. Should game developers consider market forces, or should they make games they love and hope that there's an audience?
http://www.thevoxelagents.com/agentlogs/
@thevoxelagents
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