ovum

Digital games market could be worth $53B by 2016

Is there anywhere Angry Birds won't go?

Research firm Ovum doesn't think so, and expects hits such as Angry Birds to drive growth in the digital gaming market. The firm predicts that the market, which comprises any online games played on the PC, console, or smartphone, will double over the next five years to $53 billion.

The market for mobile gaming alone is expected to triple to $17.5 billion by 2016, Ovum said.

"With the addition of more and more casual gamers, the market is no longer the sole preserve of the teen male hardcore gamer,&… Read more

Android to overtake Apple in app downloads

Android is expected to surpass Apple in application downloads for the first time, according to research firm Ovum.

Android could notch 8.1 billion app downloads this year, compared with 6 billion for Apple's iOS devices. That marks an explosion of growth for both platforms; Apple had 2.7 billion downloads and Android recorded 1.4 billion last year. The total number of application downloads is expected to grow by 144 percent this year, Ovum said in a report issued today.

"Consumers' seemingly insatiable demand for mobile applications is set to continue this year, with downloads from app … Read more

Google cloud APIs lead mobile developers

The results of research firm Ovum's latest mobile application developer survey show that Google's server-side APIs are preferred to mobile operators' own services by more than two to one.

Ovum reports that 60 percent of mobile developers are using or plan to use Google's server-side APIs when building applications, leaving the mobile operators behind at 25 percent of the developer audience.

When selecting partners for application development, the top requirements were (in order):

Ease of development Breadth of platform functionality Good-quality SDKs Flexibility/innovation

Google and Apple have done a tremendous amount of outreach to make their … Read more