Mobile app news roundup: Tapjoy, GREE and the end of 2G

Kompu gacha ban hurts Komani's earnings -- The ban on the kompu gacha monetization mechanic has hurt Konami's Q1 2013 performance quite significantly, reports Dr. Serkan Toto. The company's social game sales dropped 22.5 percent to $102 million, from last quarter's sales of $130 million. Peak Android? -- Analytics firm Strategy Analytics reports that Google's Android operating system may have reached peak saturation in the U.S., reporting sales of Android devices have declined by 5 percent year-over-year. 50 layoffs at the Daily -- More bad news for pioneering digital newspaper The Daily, as publisher News Corp announced it would lay off 50 full-time employees, and eliminated its Sports and Opinion sections. Tapjoy secures core team from Viximo to open Boston studio -- Mobile advertising and publishing platform Tapjoy as acquired the core team from social games distribution platform Viximo. The newest Tapjoy employees will help establish the company’s Boston studio and focus on developer relations and advertising sales in the Northeast. Flurry adds targeting by "persona" -- Mobile analytics company Flurry now allows developers to segment their audience into 23 interest segments the company is calling "Personas." Example Personas include: Value Shopper, Bookworm, Personal Finance Geek and Fashionista. DeNA's progress in China -- DeNA's aggressive expansion into China appears to be paying off, the company already has 5 million Mobage users spread across 60 games, reports Dr. Serkan Toto. 100 million downloads for Temple Run -- Indie hit Temple Run has been downloaded more than 100 million times. 68 percent of the game's downloads have come from iOS, 30 percent from Google Play and two percent from the Amazon Appstore. Tapjoy and SK Planet announce partnership -- Also in Tapjoy news, the company has entered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with SK Telecom affiliate SK Planet, South Korea’s largest telecommunications company. The partnership allows SK Planet to leverage Tapjoy’s monetization platform, and helps Tapjoy expand its global footprint through SK Planet’s T store which has more than 15 million subscribers. AT&T to shut down 2G network by 2017 -- An AT&T Securities and Exchange Commission filing reveals that only 12 percent of AT&T’s postpaid customers are using 2G phones. The company will switch off the entirety of its 2G cellular network by January 1, 2017 in order to deal with "significant spectrum and capacity constraints." GREE joins ESA -- The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the organization which owns and operates E3 and provides legal services to game publishers, today announced the addition of mobile game company GREE to its membership roster. GREE’s membership follows E3 2012, where GREE had a significant presence. This is Now shows off Instagram’s API potential -- This is Now is a visual composition which uses real-time updates from Instagram. Users pick one of five cities (New York, Sao Paulo, London, Tokyo or Sydney) and are then taken to a page which instantly streams photos uploaded to Instagram from that city. Mark Zuckerberg remained tight-lipped about the lack of progress on Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram during the company’s first earnings call last week. [Rumor] iPhone 5, iPad Mini set for Sep. 12 debut -- iMore reports Apple will unveil the hotly anticipated iPhone 5 on Sept. 12, with the official release to follow on September 21. The site also alleges the Apple will unveil the 7 inch iPad mini on on Sept. 12.

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Mobile app news roundup: Tapjoy, GREE and the end of 2G

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