Mobile App Roundup: Funzio, DeNA and Adobe

China Leads Growth in Mobile App Adoption, Use: Flurry - China’s mobile app adoption rate is far outpacing the rest of the world according to Flurry. The country now has the world’s fastest growing app market, seeing mobile app sessions increase by 870% between January and October. If growth holds steady, China will surpass the United States as the largest app market by 2013. We have a very good overview explaining iOS, Android market sizing plus distribution in China for developers here. Gmail iOS App Launches With Major Bugs, Pulled Hours Later - The internet was briefly excited, and then quickly disappointed with the debut of Google’s totally unusable official Gmail app. Gmail apologized for the fiasco on its official Twitter account, saying “The iOS app we launched today contained a bug with notifications. We have pulled the app to fix the problem. Sorry we messed up.” Funzio is the Most Innovative Social Game Company - Crime City developer Funzio has been named to this year’s Dow Jones VentureWire FASTech 50, a list of the most investment worthy startups as selected by the VentureWire and a board of venture capitalists. Funzio was the only gaming company who made this year’s list. DeNA Nets $450 Million in Sales, Mobage Expanding Fast - Japanese company DeNA has reported a bumper quarter that saw the company rack up $457 million in sales and bring in $203 million in operating income. DeNA has been aggressively expanding its Mobage platform, a move that has translated into a 50% increase in users year-on-year. This is the eighth consecutive quarter of increasing revenues for the company. Sword & Sworcery Wins Big at Canadian Game Talent Awards - Independent studio Capy’s unique iOS adventure game with social media elements Sword & Sworcery EP won big at the Canadian Game Development Awards this week, taking home the honors for Programmer of the Year and Visual Artist of the year. The awards are chosen by members of the Canadian Interactive Academy. Adobe Nabs Auditude - Adobe is deepening its commitment to advertising with the purchase of video advertising startup Auditude for almost $120 million. Auditude provides monetization advertising solutions that work across multiple devices. According to a press release issued by Adobe, the company plans to integrate Auditude’s services with its existing video creation and publishing products. EMI Music Coming to Mobile Apps - App developers will now be able to license more than 12,000 songs from EMI’s music catalogue, thanks to a new partnership between the major label and music app platform The Echo Nest. According to TechCrunch the licensing fee for the songs will see EMI take 60 percent of net revenue, with Echo Nest and the developers splitting the rest. Online Shopping to Increase, Retail Traffic from Mobile Devices to Double - IBM is predicting that this holiday season will see 12 to 15% more sales generated through online shopping, and that mobile devices such as smartphones and iPads will now account for 15% of all traffic to online retailer’s websites. iOS 5 Spurs Hotmail Mobile Boom - Thanks to changes in iOS 5 that made it easier to add a Hotmail account to the iPhone’s Mail app, Microsoft is reporting a huge upswing in the number of Hotmail users who access their email from a mobile device. According to the Microsoft blog, more than 2 million users have have synced their email accounts with their devices since the release of iOS 5 and new devices are being set up at the rate of just under 100,000 a day. Half a Billion Angry Birds - According to Rovio, mega-hit Angry Birds has now been downloaded more than 500 million times. This comes just two weeks after the company’s North American general manger Andrew Stalbow announced the game had been downloaded at least 400 million times at the Web 2.0 Summit, and less than two months after the company revealed it had crossed the 350 million download mark. Microsoft Launching HTML5 Based Bing Apps - Microsoft is bringing uniformity to the Bing experience by releasing new mobile apps for its search engine built with HTML5, a move that allows them offer the same functionality and look across every platform. The apps are available now for iOS and Android and are coming soon to BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7. [Funding] Smule Nets $12 Million - Palo Alto based, music app developer Smule has raised $12 million in a round of funding lead by Shasta Ventures. Smule is most well known for its apps MadPad, I am T-Pain and Glee Karaoke. [Funding] Appcelerator Raises $15 Million in Series C, Now Largest 3rd Party App Publisher - Mobile app development platform Appcelerator has acquired $15 million in series C funding from a variety of companies such as Red Hat, eBay and Storm Ventures. The company also revealed it has published over 30,000 apps on the iOS and Android app stores, making it the largest 3rd party publisher in the mobile apps ecosystem. Last week we reported that the company had acquired Particle Code to boost its HTML5 offerings.

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Mobile App Roundup: Funzio, DeNA and Adobe

Kathleen De Vere

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Kathleen De Vere