Welcome to PocketGamer.biz's weekly rundown of the stories clocking up the hits, picking up the click-throughs and generally keeping the advertisers happy by serving up page views.
Or, if you'd prefer, the top five stories currently dominating our readers' attention.
Each week, we'll be counting down the biggest news from the previous seven days, giving just a glimpse of the industry's big issues, from five to one.
Chinese developer PunchBox sees freemium game Fishing Joy reach 30 million downloads
The fishing genre is massive in the fast-growing Chinese market.
So with all eyes on how it will mature in 2012, people are naturally interested in what game are making the headlines - something developer PunchBox is certainly doing with 30 million downloads of its free-to-play title Fishing Joy across iOS and Android to-date.
Click here to read more.
Rumour: Microsoft Points to be phased out on Windows Phone Marketplace and Xbox Live in 2012
Not yet confirmed by Microsoft but all the rumours suggest the Microsoft Points system as used in Xbox Live and Windows Phone Marketplace is on the way out.
Instead, it's expected that virtual goods within these stores will fall under the same real cash exchange system as used by all other app stores, although, no doubt, with Microsoft encouraging developers to use their own hard and soft virtual currency systems to reduce friction.
Click here to read more.
Zynga not losing money, but rather making $30 on every new paying user, reckons NaturalMotion's Torsten Reil
With financial analysts starting to tout their wares in terms of research notes on Zynga's future earnings, we're seeing a dichotomy of views between extremes of bull and bear break out.
In that context, people were quick to jump onto Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia's assertion that the company was losing $150 on every new paying user it acquired.
As pointed out by NaturalMotion CEO Torsten Reil, that number was based on the assumption that Zynga didn't experience any churn in existing users, while a churn (or attrition) rate of 20 percent, would see it making $30 per user.
You pays your money, you makes your choice.
Click here to read more.
Apple beats out Android to US smartphone market share in Q4 2011 - just
Surprising, considering Android has ruled the US smartphone market since early 2011, the massive uplift of iPhone 4S sales has turned the tables.
At least, that's according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, which reckons that between October to December 2011, iPhone had a US smartphone market share of 44.9 percent, compared to 44.8 percent for Android.
Click here to read more.
NimbleBit's Ian Marsh offers Zynga 'congratulations' for cloning Tiny Tower with Dream Heights
It looks like 2012 is starting with a return to the politics of cloning - something that occasionally bubbled during 2011.
Zynga allegedly ripping off NimbleBit's massively successful Tiny Tower as Dream Heights shows how the big companies are under pressure to continue their growth, and - hence, perhaps - more keen to seek 'inspiration' from other companies.
"Pretty sad when a company of 2,789 people can't even come up with their own game ideas," tweeted NimbleBit co-founder David Marsh.
Click here to read more.
Until next week, PocketGamer.biz pickers...
Hot Five
Contributing Editor
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
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