Week that was

PG.biz week that was: BlackBerry 10, Samsung's successes, Nokia's lawsuits, and the TIGA dispute

The past 7 days' news compressed bite-sized

PG.biz week that was: BlackBerry 10, Samsung's successes, Nokia's lawsuits, and the TIGA dispute
This week the PG.biz team - at least Jon, swapped the drizzle and austerity of the UK for a week in sunny Florida, where he basked in the warmth, swam in opulent hotel pools, and occasionally listened to some suits from RIM talk about BB 10.

Because this week was BlackBerry World 2012, and in a stroke of good fortune, our holiday destination was just round the corner from RIM's chosen venue. We popped in once or twice and penned a story or two.

That's just the kind of endlessly diligent chaps we are here at PG.biz, the home of news and views on the business of app stores, smartphone platforms, developments in mobile game making and assorted technology.

So let's not dilly-dally - here's what's been in the news this week.

BlackBerry World

Naturally, there's a bumper crop of BlackBerry news this week, and after publicly showing some of the features we can expect to see in BlackBerry 10 when it launches later this year, RIM also used the event as an opportunity to talk up its gaming offering.

Gameloft announced that it be bringing 11 games to the launch of the BlackBerry 10 operating system, while Fishlabs and Paw Print say that they already have games up and running on the forthcoming OS.

And since RIM has also released the BB 10 beta developer toolkit this week, other developers can begin working on their own BB 10 projects, perhaps tempted by the company's promise that 'quality' apps will make at least $10,000 on the platform.

RIM's obviously keen to attract developers to BlackBerry, and it's spending more than $100 million in an effort to build its app ecosystem. Presumably some of that money went on Games, BlackBerry's newly-announced answer to Apple's Game Center.

But all of this time and energy being spent on gaming doesn't mean that BlackBerry is forgetting its enterprise audience. In fact, it would seem that the company is changing its tablet strategy subtly, and will take steps to ensure that any PlayBook successor is an enterprise device, first and foremost.

Meet your makers

Shifting our focus to Apple for a moment, this week saw projections suggest that iPhone sales in China could reach 35 million in 2013, and we also encountered rumours that Apple may be preparing to launch its own mobile network sometime this year, with Google possibly following suit.

Elsewhere in the world of Apple, comScore figures released this week showed that Apple and Samsung were the only two companies to enjoy growth in Q1 2012 in the US, and together they can claim 40 percent of the mobile market there.

The two companies remain entangled in a legal dispute over patents, although they'll be entering settlement talks on 21-22 May.

Sticking with Samsung, the Korean company's strong smartphone sales have led to $5.15 billion in profits for Q1 2012, as the manufacturer has overtaken Nokia as the world's top OEM.

Those figures were no doubt helped by 2 million sales of the Samsung Galaxy Note during its first 2 months on sale in South Korean, and they'll no doubt be helped when the Samsung Galaxy S III hits European shelves.

Nokia goes to court

From Cupertino, to Korean, to Finland - and this week has seen Nokia talking up the multiple Windows 8 tablets it has in development, and announcing the launch of its 41 megapixel cameraphone, the Nokia PureView 808, in selected markets.

In this case, 'selected markets' means India and Russia, and the device will be on sale in those territories sometime this month.

Nokia has also been filing lawsuits this week, alledging that HTC, ViewSonic, and RIM all manufacture devices which infringe on Nokia's patents. The Finnish firm has a strong history when it comes to enforcing its patents, so Nokia may soon receive a patent payday.

But what goes around comes around, it would seem, and Nokia shareholder Robert Chmielinski has filed a class action lawsuit against Nokia this week, claiming that the company misled its investors by exaggerating the Lumia's chances of reviving revenues at the company.

We've also time enough for a glance in Motorola's direction, and despite an increase in smartphone shipments for the quarter, and an increase in overall mobile revenues, the company posted an $86 million loss for Q1 2012.

Out the windows

This week started with some bad news for Windows Phone, as the Korean Herald reported that LG had pulled support for Microsoft's OS in order to focus on Android.

A day later, LG denied the story, although the Korean manufacturer did note that it's currently "focusing on Android because that's where the demand is."

Perhaps the chaps at Redmond found a crumb of solace in Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's gushing appraisal of their smartphone OS.

More good news came as Nokia claims that its Lumia range has led to a 300 percent jump in Window Phone app submissions.

Steam-powered Android

In the wacky world of Android, Datamonitor's technology-focused arm Ovum has projected that annual smartphone shipments will grow to 1.7 billion by 2017, with Android taking a domineering 48 percent market share.

App and game publisher Animoca is similarly enthusiastic about the operating system's prospects, defending against suggestions that Android may be in decline by collecting a wealth of figures which suggested the platform is still growing.

And while Amazon's year-on-year net income has fallen 35 percent, its Android powered Kindle Fire has become the single best selling product on its US website, giving Amazon a sizeable share of the US tablet market.

Finally, following last week's revelation that Football Manager Handheld 2012 suffered a 9:1 piracy rate on Android, Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson has suggested that Google's OS needs a gaming platform like Steam – something with both community features and customer-friendly DRM.

Corporate GREE

Coming straight out of left field this week was the news that GREE had acquired US hardcore social publisher Funzio for $210 million.

It's another crazy-money acquisition for the industry, but Funzio COO Anil Dharni thinks that his company is well worth the money. Predictably.

While we're on the subject of expensive acquisitions, this week also saw the news that Draw Something has been haemorrhaging daily active users since developer OMGPOP was acquired by Zynga for $180 million back in March.

Investors are obviously a little nervy about this decline.

Perhaps the revenue earned from the introduction of advertising in gameplay - in which a player might have to draw a KFC bargain bucket for their opponent - will put them at ease.

Draw Something wasn't the only App Store sensation in the news this week, though. Rovio branded Angry Birds Space the 'fastest growing mobile game ever' as it topped 50 million downloads after 35 days on sale.

Meanwhile, PopCap looks to be taking a leaf out of Rovio's playbook, as it announced a move into merchandising which will see licensed products based on Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled.

TIGA TIGA, burning bright

UK trade organisation TIGA released a 44 page guide for indie developers looking to publish their own games this week. How nice of them, you might think.

Zee-3 co-founder Ste Pickford disagrees and he's criticised the organisation's decision to charge non-members £120 for the guide.

According to Pickford, TIGA has "morphed into something more suited to the needs of the bigger UK studios", featuring "membership fees designed to keep out bedroom coders."

Now, the TIGA has bitten back. In a statement to PocketGamer.biz, TIGA CEO Dr. Richard Wilson directly addresses Pickford's criticisms, arguing that "TIGA has a responsibility to deliver high quality services to its members and to avoid making a financial loss."

Furthermore, Wilson claims that the organisation's victories are good for all UK developers, whether they're TIGA members or not. "Make no mistake," he explained, "the tax break victory is not simply good for TIGA members."

We're eagerly anticipating Ste Pickford's reply.

Staff Writer

PocketGamer.biz's news editor 2012-2013