Mobile app news roundup: Flurry, Crowdstar and iOS 6

Flurry acquires Trestle -- Mobile analytics company Flurry has acquired Trestle for an undisclosed sum according to TechCrunch. Trestle’s services are the framework behind Flurry’s new AppCloud service, a backend solution for mobile apps that handles user account management, scalable cloud storage, and push notifications. iOS 6 ditches password requirements for free app -- Apple will no longer require users downloading free apps to enter their passwords when iOS 6 rolls out, reports Cult of Mac. Users will soon be able to download free apps, updates and restore previous purchases without entering a password. Crowdstar reports 200% annual revenue growth -- Top Girl developer Crowdstar is reporting since it switched its focus to developing mobile games, the company has seen a 200 percent annual increase in new game revenues. GREE announces latest platform partners -- Vancouver’s Hothead Games, Oregon’s Soma Games, Melbourne’s SpaceGum, and Hong Kong’s SiuYiu are the latest mobile developers to sign up for GREE’s new mobile platform. Feature phone users switching to smartphones -- Almost half of all feature phone users who acquired a new device in April opted to get a smartphone instead of another feature phone, reports ComScore. Among those who made the switch, 61.5 percent of consumers chose Android devices, 25.2 percent chose Apple devices and 7.1 percent opted for Microsoft smartphones. Big Fish Games’ cloud service goes live -- Big Fish Games has launched its cloud gaming service Big Fish Unlimited in the U.S. The service allows users to stream and play over 100 games on PC, Mac, tablet, smartphones and connected TVs. The subscription fee is $7.99 a month. Orange, Gameloft partnership in Africa, Middle East -- French telecommunications company Orange and French game developer and publisher Gameloft have signed a global partnership to promote usage of mobile games in Africa and the Middle East. Fortumo adds mobile subscription billing -- Mobile payments company Fortumo now supports cross-platform subscription billing. Fortumo has negotiated deals with more than 250 mobile operators in over 70 countries. Activision to optimize its mobile games with Swrve -- Activision has signed a licensing agreement for mobile ad personalization from analytics service Swrve. Activision will utilize Swrve’s A/B testing platform to test, tune and optimize its games in real time. WildTangent forms own mobile studio -- Seattle’s WildTangent has formed its own mobile studio. The company’s first mobile game will be released this fall. Wooga expanding to Android -- Wooga has announced it is entering the Android market. The company’s first game on the platform will be Diamond Dash. The game has already racked up more than 20 million downloads on iOS. Tylted opens platform to external developers -- New York-based Tylted has announced it is opening its HTML5 social gaming platform to other developers. The company’s gaming portal receives over 10 million unique visitors a month. DeNA, Daum and Square Enix bring Final Fantasy Brigade to Korea -- DeNA and Square Enix’s ultra-popular Final Fantasy social game Final Fantasy Brigade is coming to Korea thanks to a partnership with South Korea’s Daum Communications Group. The game currently has 2.5 million registered users in Japan. Instagram up to 80 million users -- Instagram now boasts 80 million registered users worldwide, according to a post on the company’s blog. All together, the company’s users have shared almost 4 billion photos. Amazon reports weak earnings, top selling products all digital -- Amazon has reported a net income of just $7 million on revenues of $12.83 billion during Q2 reports TheNextWeb.The company’s top 10 selling products were all either digital or digital related. [Launch] Walking Dead: The Game comes to iOS -- Telltale Games and Skybound Entertainment’s five-part episodic game series is now available on iOS. Episode 1 is available now as a $4.99 paid app. [Launch] Topps launches casual social game on iOS -- Trading card company Topps has launched its second mobile title, Topps Bunt. The game takes the mechanics behind fantasy leagues, and allows players to compete for dominance of a global leaderboard. [Launch] DabKick launches photo sharing app -- San Francisco-based DabKick is entering the hot mobile photo sharing market with its new, self-titled app. DabKick’s take on the genre is that users who use the app can share content and interact with the photos of users that haven’t downloaded the app. GREE CEO Naoki Aoyagi is a minority investor in the company.

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Mobile app news roundup: Flurry, Crowdstar and iOS 6

Kathleen De Vere

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