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iPhone owners make up 14% of mobile game downloaders

by Mike Schramm Feb 4th 2009 at 8:30PM

Hot off the heels of the news that the iPhone is dominating independent mobile gaming comes this interesting statistic: 14% of all people downloading mobile games are doing so on an iPhone. Market research group comScore says that not only is the iPhone picking up double digits of all game downloads overall, but that 32.4% of all iPhone users have downloaded a game. We're not sure if this means purchased a game over the air or bought it in iTunes' App Store and then transferred it onto the phone, but that's a lot of downloading.

And the numbers are increasing -- 8.5 million Americans downloaded mobile games onto their devices in November of last year, up 17 percent from the year before. And smartphones in general are growing -- last year, there were zero smartphones sitting in the top 10 mobile devices for downloading, says a comScore analyst, and this year, six of the ten on the list are smartphones. Sounds like an emerging market to us, and the iPhone is sitting right on top.

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Vikram

Only 14%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Really - I don't like being fooled (But I guess I'm not)!

http://iphone-game-reviews.com

February 08 2009 at 4:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Martin C

Makes me wish i knew how to programme the bloody games, i've heard too many stories of people quitting their jobs to do it!

February 07 2009 at 3:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mystic

That's it? I thought it would be a lot higher. I downloaded maybe one game before I got the iphone. Now I have at least 8 paid games on the iPhone.

February 05 2009 at 11:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Mystic's comment
Robbie

OMG that fetch mms app is awesome!!!! It lets me send photos from my iphone to my sister and parents on their cell phone. check it out guys!!! waaaay better than a game

February 05 2009 at 8:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
iphonedev

This is not surprising as corroborated by one of the top-selling business app What Makes or Breaks App Sale on iTunes ?.

The chart over there reveals how the Apple's promotion affects the sales volume of an app.

February 05 2009 at 8:09 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to iphonedev's comment
iphonedev

The URL was http://www.iphonedev.in

February 05 2009 at 8:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Khyros

Considering Apple's had a mobile phone on the market for 18 months and currently sells only one model, 14% is hugely impressive.

Plus to add to Apple's merit, you have to take into account that they keep 30% of all income generated from the app store. Most games sold for mobile phones are delivered thru the mobile operator's infrastructure (so Nokia for example doesn't get any money from the many games sold for Nxx phones).

February 05 2009 at 6:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Victor

So do you think this means we're ever going to get an iphone game with a plot and dialog? Or am I asking too much....

February 05 2009 at 2:53 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jackie

Really only 14%? I would think it would be much higher. My favorite app right now is fetch mms. it rocks. there's like over 15,000 app's now right! I love the iphone :)

February 05 2009 at 1:52 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
411macjunkie

14% is very impressive considering the many make and models of mobile phones.

February 05 2009 at 12:52 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Roy

This is GREAT NEWS for iPhone game developers! Rock on!

February 04 2009 at 10:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Alex Morach

Only 14%?

February 04 2009 at 10:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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