Top 10 PG.biz stories of 2011
What better way to take stock of 2011 than to look back at what stories you, the informed and insightful reader, have been clicking on the most this year.
If nothing else, our rundown of the top 10 stories of the year serves to highlight your taste: almost all the major trends of the year are here, from the rise of freemium and the in-app purchase model, to Apple's next big step in the gaming industry.
In fact, were I a less sophisticated scribe - or, at least, not quite as intoxicated with mullled wine - I might well refer to the following countdown as more stuffed with tasty delights than a turkey on Christmas Eve. Whoops.10. 72% of iPhone app revenue comes from in-app purchases, up from 28% in 2010
Behind every stat is a story or, in the case of Distimo's numbers published in September, several stories.
During a presentation at the Verizon Developer Community Conference in Las Vegas, Hendrik Koekkoek of Distimo revealed the growing prominence of in-app purchases. Indeed, the firm's numbers suggested 72 percent of all App Store revenue came from apps employing IAP.
A little bit of extra detective work on the part of PG.biz went on to reveal that this wealth of revenue was sourced from just 4 percent of the marketplace's library a rather startling figure that served to highlight how a relatively small number of apps dominate the platform's top spots.
Still, it was this original story that proved the most popular, with Distimo's numbers also revealing more than a third of that IAP revenue comes from within paid apps.
9. Nokia World 2011: Ovi Store generating 10 million app downloads a day
2011 may have been the year when Nokia shifted away from platforms past and jumped aboard the good ship Windows Phone, but the OEM's existing marketplace the Ovi Store still managed to tick over nicely in the background.
October saw Nokia reveal that the store was now generating 10 million downloads a day, just as the firm's new batch of Series 40 phones the Asha range were unveiled at Nokia World in London, primarily pitched at a developing market audience.
8. Ten killer trends from GDC 2011
Confusing as it may seem to detail a list within a list, PG.biz editor Jon Jordan's rundown of the top trends he observed at 2011's Game Developer Conference in San Francisco proved invaluable to many.
Without wishing to give the game away spoilers, as they say Jordan's countdown involved chasing so-called in-app purchase 'whales', the importance of monetisation in modern game design and the industry's inevitable focus on just three platforms in the coming years: Window Phone, iOS and Android.
7. Sony Ericsson gives Xperia owners access to boot loader, but doesn't recommend it
One of the advantages of Android over iOS, as advocates will tell you, is the ability for OEMs to open up or lock off parts of the OS as they see fit.
Sony Ericsson's decision to allow Xperia owners to load custom ROMs onto their devices in April, then, was pitched as a way for the firm to appease consumers eager to play around with their devices.
Interesting, however, was the advice from Sony Ericsson itself, which warned against users engaging in such activities as it handed over the keys to the platform, claiming 'no responsibility' should their phone's performance suffer as a result.
Not one for the novices, then.
6. Games the focus as Apple preps devs for iPhone 5 with A5-equipped iPhone 4
One thing 2012 and 2011 are likely to have in common is an abundance of iPhone 5 rumours.
Before Apple lifted the lid on 4S, speculation earlier in the year suggested iPhone 5 would be the firm's next handset. Back in April, such talk focused on the rumour developers were being handed prototype units essentially iPhone 4s equipped with Apple's iPad 2 chip, the A5.
In the end, that's what 4S proved to be, and even then, the 4S name was already being tentatively suggested as a possible moniker by those in the know.
In a year when the number of interviews on PG.biz reached an all time high, it's a testament to Mobile Pie's Will Luton that his vision of a future challenge to Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo's dominance in the home console market proved the most popular - or controversial, depending on your point of view.
"AirPlay Mirroring is the biggest feature iOS has and a feature that will start a chain of events that will change the games industry completely, with mobile devices replacing the console," the studio's creative director told us.
"That might sound like hyperbole and, to take it at face value now, you'd be right take up of Apple TV is worse than poor. In the future, however, I fully expect to see AirPlay certified TVs, and when that becomes ubiquitous, it'll kill Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3."
4. Apple stamps down on app incentivisation; starts rejecting games using per install model
No look at the top stories of the year would be complete without a mention of Apple's customary habit of changing the App Store's rulebook without notifying anybody beforehand.
April saw news of a move against app incentivisation - the practice of offering virtual currency to users in exchange for downloading promoted apps - hitting the headlines, with Apple reportedly rejecting any titles that employed the system.
Made popular by platforms such as Tapjoy, Apple never went public on the supposed rule change, but it was a decision that resulted in a shift by those supporting the model towards Android.
3. The top 50 developers of 2011: 10 to 1
It bodes well for this article's hit counter that PG.biz readers clearly love a countdown or two.
February saw the site unveil its annual rundown of the top 50 mobile developers on the planet using metrics such as sales performance, critical acclaim of releases.
Making the top 10 were the likes of EA Mobile, as well as a yet-to-be-purchased PopCap, Halfbrick and Firemint.
Hold the drumroll: I'll keep the eventual winner under wraps, though the full rundown of the final ten is, naturally, just a click away.
It's easy to forget now, but the start of 2011 saw one of the trends from the previous year linger: trademark discrepancies.
Back in January, stories on the web suggested Doodle Jump studio Lima Sky had been sending out warnings, via Apple, to developers behind games with the word Doodle in them.
The implication was, Lima Sky believed such games were fraudulently riding the coattails of Doodle Jump's success by dropping the word into their titles.
As some criticised the audacity of the studio, Lima Sky co-founder Igor Pusenjak's response was to post a lengthy reply clarifying the situation, revealing the move against the so-called Doodle studios has been called off.
"There was absolutely no rush to call a game 'Doodle Something' until Doodle Jump became famous," he contested.
"My first commitment is to Doodle Jump fans and to making Doodle Jump a great game. My second commitment is to the indie game dev community. It saddens me that so many of you were so quick to jump to conclusions based on incomplete and incorrectly reported information, and without even hearing the other side of the story."
1. Apple calls in Capcom over Smurfs' Village IAP controversy
The most controversial story of the year of them all, however, revolves perhaps fittingly around in-app purchases.
2011 was undoubtedly the year IAPs were both employed and, in the case of some, mastered by developers on the App Store. That's not to say there weren't a few sticky spots hit along the way, though.
Most prominent was the furore that surrounded Capcom's Smurfs' Village, and the suggestion made by some customers that IAPs were being made without them being notified. In particular, parents complained their children were amassing huge bills unawares, because Apple's regulations only required the title to prompt users for their password when making purchases every 15 minutes.
In the end, Apple shifted the boundaries so passwords have to be input separately for the download or purchase of apps, and the purchase of IAP, but not before PG.biz exclusively revealed Apple had "called in" Capcom over the incident, with a "well placed" source suggesting the publisher's knuckles had been well and truly rapped.