The PocketGamer.biz week that was: Apple booms, analysts are disappointed, 'crazy' iPad mini, and it's Cutsville at Zynga
The past 7 days in bite-sized portions
This week, as it unveiled iPad mini, Apple put on a product unveiling that - once again - was light on surprises.
I suppose those are the breaks when you're the most valuable publicly traded company in the world – lots of people become very keen to find out about your products ahead of time, and a couple of those people succeed. And then theytell the whole internet.
Still, one thing we didn't know about the iPad mini was its price, and that revelation was a bit of a shock. Coming in at $329, the iPad Mini is more than double the price of Amazon's $159 Kindle Fire.
Although the product is clearly a response to the proliferation of low-cost 7-inch Android tablets, Apple has decided not to compete with them in terms of price. As ever, Apple is going its own way, although this time, it's doing so in terms of pricing policy rather than design innovation.
But I won't analyse Apple's pricing policies too closely here, as Pocket Gamer's editor-in-chief Kristan Reed has beaten me to it.
His thoughts? The $329 price tag is 'crazy.' Right on, brother.
Platform wars- The Kindle Fire offers some of the best click through rates, according to mobile ad network Velti.
- Microsoft announces that its SmartGlass dual-screen technology will debut alongside Windows 8 and Surface, on 26 October. The iOS and Android apps, however, will follow 'soon'.
- In the course of unveiling its new iPad mini and killing off 'the new iPad', Apple announces the App Store has so far hosted 35 billion app downloads and paid out $6.5 billion to developers.
- Zynga announces that it's cutting 5 percent of its workforce and canning 13 games. The next day, the company's Q3 financials show that Zynga has posted a net loss of $52.7 million.
- Nintendo announces that half year 3DS sales are up 65 percent against the same period in 2011, but cites weaker than expected sales overseas as it downgrades its financial forecasts.
- The PS Vita isn't just being outsold by smartphones and the 3DS – last generation handhelds are currently more popular than Sony's floundering handheld.
- Apple's full year accounts see sales up 45% to $157 billion, and net income up 61% to $42 billion
- Wall Street is 'disappointed' with Apple
- In a move intended to bolster its free-to-play business, Big Fish poaches Chris Williams from PlayFirst and appoints him GM of F2P across mobile, PC and Mac.
- In this week's edition of the PocketGamer.biz Charticle, we examine Mobage, and take a closer look at how DeNA's network performs on both Android and iOS.
- Subatomic Studios adds in-app purchases to Fieldrunners 2, but the indie studio is trying its darndest to keep all of its players happy.
- Rovio partners with McDonald's in China to create a location-based Angry Birds game.
- Zynga signs an exclusive deal with bwin.party to launch real money gambling games in the UK.
- UK start up Wish Studios breaks cover and reveals that it's working on an unannounced new IP for Sony. We catch up with CEO Caspar Field to find out more.
- GREE acquires Japanese publisher Pokelabo in a cash deal worth $170 million.
- The PocketGamer.biz mobile gaming mavens discuss exploitative working practices and a lack of diversity in the games industry.
- PocketGamer.biz editor-at-large Jon Jordan knows a thing or two about mobile games industry conferences, and he reckons the current crop of events is stifling industry debate.
- Hours before the iPad mini is unveiled, iQU's Fraser MacInnes takes a risk and dedicates his column to the shrunken slate, arguing that it's the product of a post-Jobs Apple.
- Phosphor Games creative director Chip Sineni gives PocketGamer.biz the inside story behind the making of Horn.
- Pocket Gamer's editor-in-chief Kristan Reed thinks the iPad Mini pricing is 'crazy', and only serves to make the full-size iPad look like a better deal.
- Appromoter MD Ed Vause presents the fourth in his column series on the ten commandments of app marketing: "Thou shalt not forget to produce a video trailer."