“Rochefort said the company has cut back on investment mostly due to weaknesses of Android’s application store,” Virki reports. “‘On Android nobody is making significant revenue,’ Rochefort said.”
Virki reports, “Games for iPhone generated 13 percent of Gameloft’s revenue in the last quarter. ‘We are selling 400 times more games on iPhone than on Android,’ Rochefort said.”
Full article here.
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OK, I’ll say it…bloodbath
Isn’t that a little premature saying that? Android just came out…
And train wreck. Android is rapidly failing as a platform. It will fair ok as a iPhone wannabe but as an actual software platform it’s got no chance with the amount of fragmentation it’s already seeing.
Never Fade the first Android handset is well over a year old, Google has been working on the android platform almost as long as Apple has.
yeah no joke. bloodbath indeed.
Android is nice. But it’s no iPhone OS by no means. Yeah you can add the few bells and whistles Apple has yet to implement, via software update. But it’s nowhere close to the beauty and simplicity of what Apple brings to the table.
And what kills android, is it’s on 15 different phones, How are developers suppose to make sell? seriously. iPhone is an all in one device(personal,business, gaming, audio). And the fact that there is no Computer SYNC software for larger files, lack of PC to Phone integration.
Droid is nice, it has potential, but Google is on the MS route, worrying about market share than looking at the product as a Whole.
@NeverFade
What does “just” mean in such a relatively new market. iPhone “just” came out 2.4 years ago…The App Store “just” launched 1.4 years ago. Android “just” shipped in its first phone a year ago…
Maybe I’m thinking of Droid then…
Don’t get me wrong – I love my iPhone, I was just under the impression that this was just released.
What a joke! None of their games are even in the top 100 (paid section). And they are blaming the platform, of course…
@twilightmoon, NeverFade
In fact, the Android SDK was available about 3 months before the iPhone SDK came out in beta. I remember playing with the Android SDK in December 2007 and then went full bore on the iPhone SDK when it came out in Feb 2008
…”The App Store “just” launched 1.4 years ago”
A decimal point in a non-decimal value? So, to convert it to something meaningful:
1.4 years would be 1 year and “4.8” months (and to convert THAT into something meaningful, 1 yr, 4 months, 24 days).
And 2.4 years would mean 2 years, 4 months, 24 days…
To be correct, iPhone (v1) shipped on 29 June 2007.
iPhone 3G shipped on 19 June 2008.
App Store, and the 3.0 software update for original iPhones became available on 11 July 2008.
T-Mobile G1 begun shipping on 22 October 2008.
So, while Apple had the app capability for 1 year, 4 months and 9 days, Android had it for 1 year and (almost) 1 months. I would say, this is not such a major difference. Even six months ago (when App Store was less than a year old), there were ten times as many Apps there than there are Android apps TODAY.
Nobody should be surprised why major developers aren’t bothering with Android.
I don’t remember where I read this, but I agree with it:
Android will be the mobile-phone platform for techno-geeks, open-source obsessives, and technological contrarians. Everyone else will use an iPhone.
——RM
Let’s not even overlook the issues with hardware fragmentation that are already cropping up on Android. Look at the downscaling on the DROID and you’ll see why it becomes a mess to develop for.
Can some of you more tech-literate folks out there explain why it seems to be fairly simple (because it’s so commonplace AND because from the app store’s inception developers have said it’s so) to port existing games or apps from their original platform to the iPhone, yet developers seem unwilling or unable to port games they make for iPhone onto other phones, like BB or Android? Seems like that would be a no-brainer, but it sure ain’t happening.
I’m a bit befuddled also over why they are ignoring the Android. Just because it may not make as much money as the iPhone doesn’t mean it won’t make any at all. If porting an existing iPhone app/game is relatively trivial, then some extra income is better than none.
I’m guessing the “big guys” are just looking for a bigger return on investment and would rather focus their resources into developing for something with higher returns. That doesn’t mean there is no money to be made on Android… in fact it is probably more ideal for a small independent developer who has to settle for what they can for now. If/when Android picks up steam (thanks to the efforts of these “little guys”), I can guarantee that the major players will be back in force.
@aka Christian
For one, most games are written in C, which is directly compatible with the iPhone SDK. Android and BB require Java and Palm requires JavaScript.
Two, fragmentation as previously mentioned. If I’m porting a game to iPhone, I have one screen resolution to support and I can use features such as accelometers and touchscreens which I know work on any current phone. So whatever re-working I have to do to get my game to run is relatively low cost.
In order to port my game to android, I have to support many different resolutions and I have to accomodate varying hardware features. This will requires 3x – 4x the effort than equivalent iPhone UI makeover.
So more work to get on fewer devices makes value proposition a hard target to hit.
FWIW, gotta give it up for Gameloft iPhone/iPod Touch games… I have two kids and use our iPod Touch for their gaming (as well as education apps), and five out of my last six game purchases were Gameloft titles… they are all outstanding and highly recommended:
1) Let’s Golf
2) Castle of Magic
3) Real Soccer
4) Hero of Sparta
5) Dungeon Hunter
These are all the kind of DS/Wii/xBox/PStn. quality games that make one truly marvel at the difference in pricing. Why would I go out and pay a small fortune on one of their titles when I can buy 7-8 or more titles at the iTunes App Store?
Viva Gameloft-quality developers at the App Store.
Thanks, Ed.
The whole “One Development Kit To Rule Them All” is working out smartly for Apple. Between iPhone and the iPod touch, Apple has made just the right products, for just the right consumers, with just the right tools. Nice.
“Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort said at an investor conference.”
Rochefort? Rochefort??? I thought that was a kind of salad dressing…
The French write software? Really?? Who knew….
This is somehow news?
Gameloft made US$132, 3 million in the 3 quarters (Jan – Oct). The App Store (iPhone OS devices) contributed 13% to total revenue amounting to +/- US$26.4 million (including Apple’s share). Annualized this amounts to +/- US$32.8 million. Assuming that Gameloft contributes 2.5% to total App Store revenues, this would mean that the Apps store is going to gross more than US$1.3 billion this calendar year. This will grow to +/- US$2 billion next year and over US$5 billion by 2013. Future growth is based on the assumption that iPhone OS devices will growth at average of about 45% year on year, and this based on the assumption that Apple will add more carries next year, more form factors in 2011, and price in 2012 – 2013 plus software and hardware improvements.