Hot Five

The PG.biz Hot Five: Nvidia claims Android dominance, GameMaker for HTML5 coming, and Zynga-Glu deal (again)

Last week's top five stories

The PG.biz Hot Five: Nvidia claims Android dominance, GameMaker for HTML5 coming, and Zynga-Glu deal (again)
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.



Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang boasts Tegra 2 dominance across Android

Never knowingly missing an opportunity to speak his mind, Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang pointed to where he expects the company's future growth to come from.

During a roundtable for tech journalists, he said Nvidia's Tegra chips were in "50 percent of high end Android smartphones and 70 percent of Android tablets".

It seems a high figure considering other companies - notably Qualcomm and ARM - are involved in the market, but perhaps it depends on whether you consider number of device wins or total devices shipped.

Huang also said Nvidia's revenue from its mobile chip business could grow ten-fold by 2015 to $20 billion.

Click here to read more.



YoYo Games' Sandy Duncan on why GameMaker for HTML5 is right place, right time for all developers

The GameMaker package has been around for 13 years, but under the control of Scottish outfit YoYo Games, it's being primed for the future.

A new version of the tool, called GameMaker for HTML5, is due at the end of September with CEO Sandy Duncan pointing to additional features such as team collaboration, as well as the ability to call external JavaScript libraries, plus the upsurge of interest in HTML5 as key to its ability to find a new professional audience.

"While we've previously been more about kids and bedroom coders, I think HTML5 is going to kickstart a new generation of web games, so we want to create a proper platform to enable this," he told us.
Click here to read more.



PapayaMobile's Si Shen on how mobile game business models are like bars and night clubs

There's been plenty of talk over the past months about the differences between paid and freemium games, but Si Shen, CEO and co-founder of PapayaMobile, took a different route in her column.

Comparing them with different types of nightlife, she argued paid games are like a classly nightclub: an occasional experience that offers premium features, such as DJs or clientele, which you're prepared to pay to enjoy.

Freemium games are more like your local pub or neighbourhood bar: a regular place to visit, where the atmosphere is driven by the community and cheap consumables.
Click here to read more.



Android downloads to overtake Apple in 2011 according to Ovum

The app ecosystem is growing fast - up to 144 percent in 2011 according to UK market research outfit Ovum.

Digging deeper into this number, however, it says Android is growing much faster than iOS. In 2010, it reckons there were 2.7 billion iOS downloads compared to 1.4 billion on Android. This is predicted to rise to 6 billion for iOS and 8.1 billion on Android.

"Consumers' seemingly insatiable demand for mobile applications is set to continue this year," said Ovum analyst Nick Dillon.
Click here to read more. Seeking Alpha thinks Zynga should buy Glu Mobile



Breaking at the end of the previous week, a discussion about whether freemium casual games publisher Zynga should buy Glu Mobile continues to interest readers. 

However, the most controversial part of financial website Seeking Alpha's article was the price. 

Despite Glu Mobile being worth around $200 million in terms of its current market capitalisation, the article suggested a proper amount for a deal would be a massive $600 million.
Click here to read more.

Until next week, Pocket Gamer pickers...
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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.