Gamefrontz

Percentage of iPhone connected to Internet per country

January 20, 2010

As iPhone developers, we have access to some very important data in the mobile industry, through our apps. With the launch of our new game Magic Ludo, we’re seeing some interesting trends. For example, Singapore has one of the highest internet enabled iPhone population, while surprisingly US has one of the lowest. See below for some of the countries that came under our radar.

*Internet enabled iPhone means iPhones with data plans or connected via WiFi.

Country	Connected	Downloaded	Percentage
Germany	74	69	107.25
Australia	73	94	77.66
Netherlands	11	17	64.71
Singapore	150	252	59.52
France	41	70	58.57
Denmark	171	297	57.58
Norway	99	176	56.25
Japan	12	22	54.55
Spain	42	82	51.22
United Kingdom	291	580	50.17
Italy	19	43	44.19
Canada	38	91	41.76
United Arab Emirates	11	27	40.74
China	16	42	38.10
Hong Kong	23	61	37.70
United States	183	493	37.12
Pakistan	22	76	28.95
Venezuela	55	216	25.46

Note:

Connected figures are iPhones with Magic Ludo connected to our analytic server, and is based on their IP addresses, while downloaded figures are from AppStore.
There are people in Germany using iTunes account of other countries.

We’ll update this table with more countries once we aggregate them.

	52:06.7	1/18/2010	Connected data is via IP addresses, while downloaded data is from AppStore
Country	Connected	Downloaded	Percentage	Remarks
Germany	74	69	107.25	There are people in Germany using iTunes account of other countries
Australia	73	94	77.66
Netherlands	11	17	64.71
Singapore	150	252	59.52
France	41	70	58.57
Denmark	171	297	57.58
Norway	99	176	56.25
Japan	12	22	54.55
Spain	42	82	51.22
United Kingdom	291	580	50.17
Italy	19	43	44.19
Canada	38	91	41.76
United Arab Emirates	11	27	40.74
China	16	42	38.10
Hong Kong	23	61	37.70
United States	183	493	37.12
Pakistan	22	76	28.95
Venezuela	55	216	25.46

Leave a Comment » | iPhone | Tagged: Internet enabled iPhone | Permalink
Posted by clouette

Apple Tablet, iPhone 4G and iPhone OS 4.0 guestimation

January 20, 2010

There are many rumors on the web (Gizmodo.com, Engadget.com, TechCrunch.com, etc.) on the Apple Tablet. Apple has already confirmed its 27th Jan event by sending invitations to media all over the World. No, we are not invited. But, we are as excited as you in the products that are going to be launched in the event.

Apple would also launch the iPhone OS 4.0 on 27th, such that the iPhone and the Tablet will share a similar base. This would suggest that the newer OS would force all new apps submission to be of variable resolution. In the past iPhone apps do not have such problems because all iPhone OS devices (iPhone & iPod Touch) were guaranteed 480×320. With the launch of the Tablet and many competing smartphones of higher resolution, Apple has to introduce a higher res iPhone sooner or later. So it would be a good chance to do it now.

To many developers like ourselves, the screen aspect ratio is as important as the resolution, if not more important. The current aspect ratio is 1.5:1 or 3:2 (480:320), a not-so-common ratio. It would be a problem to many developers if this ratio is changed, especially those that made videos, media, game environment using this ratio. Changing the resolution is however, not as detrimental as changing the aspect ratio. Those apps that are not ready for the higher resolution could simply be upscaled. And if OS 4.0 handles deprecation well, old apps could look just like new ones. We shall not go into details on how this is done.

Based on the above argument, we would expect the screen resolution of iPhone 4G to be at least 720×480 and the Tablet to be 960×640. Both of these resolutions are highly possible because they are multiples of 480×320 (1.5 and 2 respectively). Of course, iPhone 4G could also take on the 960×640 resolution for both platforms to be unified. 960×640 is a nicer resolution than 720×480 because every pixel is expanded into 4 whole pixels.

And because of the higher resolution, we can also expect the core processor and graphics processor to be significantly upgraded as well. RAM wise, it should be at least that of Nexus One, 512MB. As for other cosmetic specs, we shall not delve into here.

And if you are wondering why we assumed the Tablet is to share the same OS as iPhone and not MacBook, Apple would most likely want to repeat its AppStore success on the Tablet, i.e. a closed platform rather than an open one. But due to the fact it is a Tablet, users may have more control over the device.

One key feature we definitely wish to see in the Tablet is, that the device will have a SIM slot or WiMax (LTE) connectivity. This Tablet has to be connected all the time to be truly useful.

Leave a Comment » | iPhone | Tagged: Apple Tablet, iPhone 4G, iPhone OS 4.0 | Permalink
Posted by clouette

SG Mahjong Lite download 200,000 times in 10 months

January 18, 2010

We are proud to announce a significant milestone for our game SG Mahjong and its lite (free) version.

SG Mahjong Lite has been downloaded 200,000 times by unique users (Apple ID) in the first 10 months of its launch and the bulk of these downloads came from Singapore and Hong Kong. We hope you continue to support our stable of games.

Leave a Comment » | iPhone | Tagged: SG Mahjong, SG Mahjong Lite | Permalink
Posted by clouette

Estimated iPhone penetration per country

January 17, 2010

We would like to offer an estimate of the iPhone penetration per country. The scope of this estimate lies in the download figures from our 2 free apps – SG Mahjong Lite and Magic Ludo.

Here are the data for out Magic Ludo app on 15th Jan 2010:

Country	Board	Strategy	All Games	Sales
Argentina	59	74		3
Australia	83	110		20
Austria	120	191		1
Canada	152			6
Chile	172			1
China	59	83		10
Croatia	52	61		1
Czech Republic	194			1
Denmark	16	23	160	31
Dominican Republic	69	105		0
Ecuador	78	130		0
Egypt	164			0
Finland	111	182		0
France	109	132		13
Germany	116	179		6
Greece	161			0
Guatemala	107	145		0
Hong Kong	53	70		9
Hungary	57	71		1
India	32	45		6
Indonesia	27	52		6
Ireland	77	112		1
Italy	98	103		8
Jamaica	42	63		0
Japan	152	195		1
Kuwait	197			1
Lebanon	135	191		0
Macau	90	84		1
Malaysia	74	111		2
Malta	41	56		0
Mexico	109	152		2
Netherlands	140	193		2
New Zealand	44	68		3
Norway	19	29		25
Pakistan	10	11	92	3
Peru	43	55		2
Poland	97	127		1
Portugal	142			0
Russia	130	177		2
Saudi Arabia	174			0
Singapore	35	50		38
Slovakia	106	166		1
Spain	66	72		10
Switzerland	142	195		2
Taiwan	105	154		1
Turkey	97	120		1
United Arab Emirates	47	45		3
United Kingdom	61	83		80
United States	140			41
Venezuela	13	23	161	5

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | iPhone | Tagged: iPhone estimates, iPhone penetration, Magic Ludo | Permalink
Posted by clouette

Magic Ludo

January 13, 2010

Dear all,

We are proud to announce the launch of our new game, Magic Ludo. The game is FREE and is found in Games sub-category Board & Strategy.

The game is designed for users to play on the road. Short turn-based board games. There are 13 levels available in the free download. More contents would be available from in-app purchases and most downloads would be $0.99. We plan to update with contents fortnightly. There are now 2 downloads available: Unlock Levels and Extra Levels Bundle A. A Snake & Ladder board would be available soon.

The game could be frustrating because we have made our AI pretty strong. Users will find no pushover AI. Even our game designers took 9 tries to clear the first level after the tutorial. Overall, we estimate it would take about 3-5 hours to complete the game without cheating.

The game is also built-in with 3 profiles and their own save files. In case of calls, users will be able to resume their games.

Download yours today!

3 Comments | iPhone | Tagged: Magic Ludo | Permalink
Posted by clouette

SG Mahjong unlock limits requirements

December 15, 2009

Dear SG Mahjong fans,

We received several request to reveal the requirements to unlock maximum and minimum limits. Here are they (in order of increasing requirements).

For Normal & Hard mode,

Maximum limit 6: 60 games played
Minimum limit 2: 75 games played, 300 money

For Hard mode only,

Maximum limit 7: 125 games played, 5 rounds won
Maximum limit 8: 200 games played, 8 rounds won
Minimum limit 3: 250 games played, 10 rounds won, 800 money
Maximum limit 10: 500 games played, won more than 40% of all games, 15 rounds won, 2000 money
Minimum limit 4: 800 games played, 20 rounds won, 3000 money
Maximum limit 13: 1000 games played, won more than 45% of all games, 30 rounds won, 5000 money

Why ultimate maximum limit at 13 points?

Because that is the points won with 13 terminals

Why ultimate minimum limit at 4 points?

Because anything beyond that is impractical to play with, as most rounds will end up in stalemate. A full suit and pure sequence hand is 4 points each.

Hope this helps.

2 Comments | iPhone | Tagged: SG Mahjong | Permalink
Posted by clouette

Admob Developers’ forum

December 8, 2009

The Admob Developers’ meetup last night at SMU was a networking cum introduction session to Admob and services it provide. There were beer and lots of food. We stayed till 11pm.

Admob is an mobile advertising network which attracts both advertisers and publishers. Advertisers pay money to have their apps or products be advertised on Admob network. Publishers allows their apps or sites to publish Admob ads and thereby earning advertisement revenue. GameFront is so far a publisher on Admob. We have $0 marketing budget.

Admob just opened shop in Singapore in June/July with three staff and was acquired by Google recently for USD750M. Notice the amount. Admob serves 10 billion impression per month.

For iPhone and Android developer who want to start earning revenue for your free apps, you can try Admob SDK.

For those interested in Admob monthly metrics and analytics, visit metrics.admob.com

Leave a Comment » | iPhone | Tagged: Admob | Permalink
Posted by clouette