As the logical - and perhaps inevitable - conclusion of the Microsoft/Nokia saga concluded with a $7.2 billion deal, rumours surfaced that Beijing-based Lenovo would emerge as the highest bidder on BlackBerry's future.
On the smaller scale, we also heard from a representative sample of indie developers currently developing for the PS Vita as to why they're bringing their games to a decidedly more niche gaming platform.
Whether the strange bedfellows in these examples led to multi-billion dollar deals or a couple thousand downloads, it's important to take a step back and remember that stranger partnerships have happened (we're looking at you here, Google and Nestlé).
Now let's take a look back at all this and more with the Week That Was:
Funding, start ups and acquisitions
- The big news this week was Microsoft spending $7.2 billion to pick up Nokia's devices and services business.
- Which our Chart of the Week examines in more depth, revealing that Microsoft just bought the 8th largest mobile manufacturer in the US.
- Meanwhile, BlackBerry's looking to fast-track a buyout of the company by November, with Lenovo being the most likely bidder.
- And on the start-up front, the UK's Technology Strategy Board announces five £25,000 prizes for promising UK start-up projects.
Tools and platforms
- Mozilla looks to lure HTML 5 developers to Firefox OS by offering them free phones to develop on.
- Sony unveils a new third party production team to localise and port new IP to its devices.
- Android takes a break from the bizarre KitKat naming controversy to celebrate its 1 billionth activation.
- While Google announced an official Google Glass app store will launch next year.
- And we summarise the top five things we learned from last week's Unity Unite 2013 conference in Vancouver.
Monetisation
- Cyber psychologist Berni Good announced a talk at F2P Summit 2013 that will examine the role that psychology plays in the free-to-play model.
- Consultant Nicholas Lovell reckons that the best way to monetise your games is to turn the funnel on its head and focus on gameplay and not mass user acquisition.
- Research suggests that Xiaomi's users are downloading 26.5 Android apps per quarter.
- Meanwhile, another of our handy Chart of the Weeks shows that the US hegemony on app monetisation might be drawing to a close.
Industry voices
- We spoke with seven indie devs named by Sony at Gamescom to ask them why they chose to develop for the PS Vita.
- Indie developer Nicholas Lister argues that indie mobile game development is no longer a worthwhile commercial prospect.
- And our editor Keith Andrew thinks the Nokia buyout will paint Stephen Elop as a smartphone superhero.
- 148Apps' Carter Dotson says Nintendo doesn't need to go mobile, it needs to go Nintendo.
- Finally, Playnomics CEO Chethan Ramachandran let us know the latest details on his company's new churn predictor.
