//Update: EA has since dropped the price on its entire iOS library to 99c. 

In the UK, the race to music's Christmas #1 is final chart-based news of the year.

For the app community, however, getting App Store chart placement before Apple's eight day Holiday shut down - so that your games are nicely positioned in the top 10 when all those new devices are unwrapped come December 25 - is assumed to have a large financial benefit.

Still, with EA gaining Apple's overt approval for its 99c sale last year, in 2011, no one really seems to be seriously attempting to go up against that sort of powerplay.

From the French corner

No one except Gameloft, which has kicked out the jams, reducing the price of 17 of its premium games to 99c, six Mac games to 99c, as well as cutting the price of in-app purchases in its freemium games by up to 50 percent.

Obviously, EA is also up to its usual tricks with over 20 iOS games down to 99c (compared to 68 in 2010), although there are no really high profile games in the sale and one of the must-have games - Mirror's Edge - was recently free.