The PocketGamer.biz week that was: 'shit hot' BlackBerry 10, free-to-play ethics and Android fragmentation examined

This week, some of the most-read stories on PocketGamer.biz dealt with the evergreen topics in mobile gaming.

Android fragmentation, the ethics of free-to-play, premium versus freemium –these issues are hardly breaking news.

But the fact is, these issues remain relevant. Although Google is assembling a credible flagship product line under its Nexus banner, fragmentation can still be a tremendous headache for developers.

Although free-to-play already dominates the mobile gaming landscape, the model is still regarded with outright hostility in certain quarters.

And although premium pricing is an increasingly untenable proposition for all but the biggest names in the App Store, everyone's keen to find out how the likes of Disney still get away with charging for their promotional games.

It's clear that – between the research figures, financials and headlines – there's an appetite for these hardy perennials. The ground may be well-trodden, but if our contributors can bring something new to these ongoing issues, then there's merit in a revisit.

And everybody loves a good infographic from time to time.

But that's quite enough chit-chat. Instead, let's move on to our bite-sized overview of the last seven days' worth of news.

• The latest numbers from IDC show that three out of four smartphones now run Android, and its growth comes at the expense of Microsoft and RIM.
• Apple announces it has sold more than 3 million units of its new iPad line – the 4th generation iPad and the iPad Mini – after just three days on sale. But Android tablet shipments are surging.
• Zynga is looking to pull out of Japan by the end of 2012, according to Tokyo-based social games consultant Dr Serkan Toto.
• Just how fragmented is the Android ecosystem? Really quite fragmented, according to the latest PocketGamer.biz infographic.
• RIM's director of business development Volker Hirsch claims that apps on BlackBerry make 4 percent more revenue a month than on iOS, and promises that games will shine on "shit-hot" BB 10.
• Lennon Arcardo, account director for Gameloft, explains that Microsoft's move away from C# reliance is what brought Gameloft back to Windows Phone.

• In this week's edition of the PocketGamer.biz Charticle, we take a look at Wreck-It-Ralph and Disney, a company that proves 99c games can still top the iOS charts.
• Carter Dotson, a senior writer at 148Apps.com asks: can free-to-play games ever really be ethical?
• Curiosity's monetisation will be "part of the experiment," according to 22Cans founder and industry mainstay Peter Molyneux.

• Finnish investment fund Vision+ announces it's spending €3 million funding 19 projects, including mobile games from Mando, Eiconic and Tribeflame.
• DeNA spends $92 million to acquire a 20 percent stake in Cygames, the developer behind Mobage titles such as Rage of Bahamut and Marvel: War of Heroes.
• Montreal-based mobile games incubator Execution Labs launches with $1.4 million to invest.

• Gameloft announces its financials for the third quarter of 2012, and reveals that 60 percent of its revenues now come from in-app purchases and mobile advertising.
• DeNA announces its financials for the second quarter of the 2012 financial year, posting record revenues of $627 million – up 45 percent year-on-year – and highlighting its Android-first policy, too.

• The PocketGamer.biz mobile gaming mavens discuss Microsoft's bold new desktop and tablet OS, Windows 8.
• In a two-part article, industry veteran Robert Unsworth examines the new breed of 'social' publisher that's taken shape in the mobile gaming space.
• PocketGamer.biz editor Keith Andrew takes a look at Peter Molyneux's mobile experiment, Curiosity, and also bangs on about the shiny wooden floors in his apartment for some reason.
• Pocket Gamer editor-in-chief Kristan Reed opines on the subject of gaming PR. Despite the ruckus that's been kicked up in the past few weeks, Reed argues that PR does a valuable job for developers.
• "Even Words With Friends was unknown once," says Millennial Media SVP Matt Gillis as he talks to PocketGamer.biz about helping indies get discovered.