EA Acquiring Playfish for $250m (Rumor)

As rumors circulate that Electronic Arts is acquiring the hot mobile and online game maker Playfish for $250m (here and here), the Wall Street Journal has a timely and fun headline. The article does not mention Playfish or any other gaming companies / targets, but the timing is certainly funny:

EA’s Schappert Foresees Social Gaming Consolidation ... Schappert deflected a question about whether EA, which has plenty of cash, might be in the market for a social-networking gaming company. While social networks such as Facebook have practically become the new Internet portals, he asked of social gaming, “Is it sustainable or is it a bubble?”

He used mobile gaming as an analogy, where EA bought one of the largest mobile game publishers, Jamdat Mobile Inc., because of its expertise in deploying games on a variety of mobile devices and networks. The acquisition enabled Jamdat to capitalize on EA’s portfolio of games. Since then, mobile gaming has become dominated by established games and established brands, Schappert said. He expects social gaming to follow a similar path and said he’s confident EA has the ability to pursue the market with internal developers while remaining open to an acquisition.

'Facebook News' - It's Already Being Delivered on & through Facebook

Facebook has become my newsreader. It is a merging of:

- social news (both of and from my friends) - major news sources (a fan of Washington Post, New York Times, etc) - industry news (your network tends to share circles around particular topics, from tech to sports to pop culture) - breaking news (whether on Twitter or Facebook, news moves quickly and often through the real time web. Today alone, dozens of posts about the Dow breaking 10,000, the rumored Playfish / EA acquisition, and so forth)

Now that Facebook has moved beyond social sharing and continues to grow ahead of Twitter, tools need to open up both on *and* off Facebook.com to allow for better management, commentary and finding of articles and news.

I once spent several hours setting up my Google RSS reader... and haven't logged in to check it for months.... because the content all exists in some format within Facebook. The Google Reader toolset however, doesn't and the sharing / commentary functionality would help news-hubs on Facebook that are relevant to my network, their activity (sharing, reading, commenting, etc) and across Facebook's much-larger network. The "Facebook Notes" feature is partially there, but imagine Facebook News (news.facebook.com) that merges content and commentary across friends, fan pages (like the New York Times) and public content. And while people spend time 'grouping' their friends, it is done on a person or geographical basis - more important though would be on a content basis: social, applications, news, sports, etc.

Meanwhile, news sources like HuffingtonPost should continue to do the reverse by innovating atop of Facebook Connect. And by adding a social layer to their content, HuffingtonPost itself becomes stickier and they see an increase in traffic from the integration.

There are also mobile implications here since the Facebook App should at least allow for improved sharing (such as email a note / URL - perhaps blog it, share it directly, etc). I am regularly within the feed - either on my iPhone or computer - and find myself wanting to share that content and open a private discussion around it. On mobile, the only current option is to comment and like:

When Amazon Destroys iTunes in Pricing... What Do You Do?

Consumers used to go to Apple's iTunes because it was easier, cheaper and more effecient. Now compared to Amazon, it is is neither cheaper nor easier... Now I buy my music directly through Amazon (as a cd no less!). The top selling album on iTunes is Michael Buble's latest. It costs 14.99 on iTunes as compared to 9.99 on amazon. That's a dramatic difference and there are dozens of other examples for popular and smaller titles alike. When iTunes falls behind on pricing, is it still worth the experience? It certainly satisfies the immediacy (even if amazon will arrive in 24-48 hours). But it loses on all else: the price is 50% greater, the finding experience is worse and the reviews are generally better on amazon. On the mobile front (where these screenshots are from), the experience is even more differentiated between the two.

When pricing is the same, iTunes wins on immediacy - but amazon has shown time and time again the ability to compete on pricing and find value downstream for the users / purchases. And unless iTunes adds some big value-add and compelling reason why I need to buy there (like Facebook connect), pricing remains critical.... And if you read the reviews, users agree (they are giving buble's album a poor rating because of the iTunes price).

Top 20 Grossing iPhone Apps: Dominated by Brands and Games

Apple recenly added a new sort / finding path for iPhone apps: Top Grossing Apps. It is far from perfect and not at all based on your habits or your friends' (it should be Facebook Connect enabled)... But it sure is revealing. Take a look at the top twenty grossig apps and we learn a few key things:

1. 12 of the top 20 apps are games. And most of the games are well known branded games like scrabble, UNO, madden football, etc. People want to game on their devices and are used to paying bigger dollars on other devices or formats.

2. Per the above bullet, brands dominate the top 20. 16 of the apps are prominent brands... users are more likely to pay for familiar names - as though it includes reliabilty among a crowded space with a failed rating system.

3. Pricing is not the much talked about 0.99. While there are a few sub dollar apps, only 8/20 are under 4.99 (which is the most common price point in the top twenty).

4. Other than games, content (family guy videos, Espn radio and CNN news) and applications (like tweetie) make up the remainder

Google AdSense Optimizes Ad Units for "High-End Phones" (aka Android & iPhone)

Billed as "AdSense High-End", Google is now letting advertisers create ads specifically for "high-end" phones like the iPhone and Android-capable devices. While that is a natural evolution of the AdSense platform, Google's explanation as to why is quite interesting:

With the growth in popularity of high-end mobile phones with full (HTML) Internet browsers, like the iPhone and phones running Android, advertisers are increasingly extending their campaigns to mobile devices. Because these devices offer a rich content experience similar to desktop, advertising on them is a natural extension for many advertisers.

... In other words, the mobile web is really the traditional web. Experiences and applications are becoming richer - and will continue to do so as devices and HTML / HTML5 allows for it. And therefore, the advertising experience will also become richer and more effective.

August Mobile Data: iPhone OS now 40% Marketshare, Android Growing Quickly

The AdMob Mobile Metrics Report for August shows continuing domination of Apple (both with the iPhone and the iPod Touch) and the growth of Android (thanks in large part to the increase in available devices):

* Worldwide iPhone OS marketshare has increased from 33 to 40 percent in the last 6 months, with substantial share in all regions except for Asia and Africa. Please see our June report for more information on the geographic distribution of our iPhone users.

* Android is growing rapidly in North America and Western Europe. The HTC Magic (my Touch) is a Top 10 smartphone in both North America and Western Europe. Worldwide requests from Android increased 17% month over month.

Other interesting takeaways from the US data:

- The top 20 handset models only had two new entrants: Palm Pre and Sony PSP - The iPhone represents 19.7% of all ad requests and the iPod Touch is 2nd at 13.3%. No other device represents more than 6% (the Samsung R450) - The iPhone itself is almost as big as the #2 manufacturer: Samsung: 19.7% vs. 21% respectively. Motorola is #3 at 10.7% - Apple represents over 60% of AT&T's ad requests. HTC is the equivalent on T-Mobile with ~50%

Foursquare Mayor Local Offers in the Wild

About a month ago, TechCrunch reported of local offers being issued through Foursquare specifically to mayors. It is a powerful example of in-application monetization that both enhances the experience (users are motivated to become mayors) and the advertiser experience (local businesses are able to connect directly with influential users).

Well, this week, I spotted my first local offers in the Foursquare mobile app. Because I am mayor of a nearby location, I was offered $2.00 off at The Marsh for a show that evening. And if I am mayor of The Marsh, drinks would also be free.

The offer is compelling for a couple reasons: - it is contextual based on location and neighborhood - there is an offer specifically for me... and users always love coupons / deals - the UI is excellent. Within the normal application experience, I get a clever alert both in the header and the footer. Eye-catching and well-explained

Interesting to see if similar experiences and local offers make their way into other social & local applications like Yelp.

Golfshot iPhone App: a Major Advancement in Golf Technology

Golfers have two consistent pains: - determining the distance to the pin and measuring the length of your last shot - capturing data to analyze and improve your game

Golfers solved these needs respectively by purchasing expensive equipment and scratching / compiling notes on the scorecard. Enter the iPhone, which you already carry in your cart and is already equipped with GPS. And enter Golfshot, an application that costs $29.99 and has data about 15,000+ golf courses across the US.

Golfshot is as simple or complex as you want it to be - which is appropriate for golf: for instance, golfers can measure the distance to the pin or track the distance of every shot (even storing that data by club). The more data you enter (and it's easy to do - simple a swipe or button press), the more advanced the application's charting and measurement system becomes.

The charting system effectively becomes Google Analytics for your round and your season. Collect data on putts, greens in regulation, driving accuracy, distances, etc both in the app or online. The charts are presented in good-looking layers and can be sorted / diced in the same way that your marketing dashboard can be.

The simplest and most useful feature is the online scorecard. It syncs directly with your address book and then automatically delivers the digital scorecard to each golfer. Those scorecards are accessible online and you can annotate them at any point (during or after the round).

The app costs $29.99 - which is far cheaper than the $250-$500 golf GPS systems that only measure distances. Golfshot is now the #11 grossing iPhone App according to iTunes (ahead and behind the games Scrabble and Uno):

Until We Have Facebook Connect for iTunes & iPhone Apps...

... we have First & 20 - a collection of iPhone home screens and favorite applications from interesting developers, designers and tech bloggers. So while I wait to see what applications my friends have installed and use (a regular discussion point at dinners and coffees) - First & 20 gives a glimpse into popular apps and how people organize their iPhones. For instance, the top five applications across the highlighted users are:

- Tweetie - Birdfeed - Things - Instapper - Facebook

Most of the homescreens also have at least one of these apps in the dock unit. It is also interesting to see that many of the homescreens have iTunes & the App Store prominently included (suggesting that these users regularly download content) and a significant portion of the apps are premium / paid for.

Facebook Mobile developer Joe Hewitt (whose screen is shown above) had a great quote highlighting the increasing importance of mobile web content / experiences in a world of applications. While he is talking specifically about Google Reader, this is becoming an important trend and, for the content-owners, a major benefit because the it is platform / hardware agnostic:

80% of my iPhone usage is Google Reader. I’ve tried every Google Reader app there is and I keep coming back to the web version. Somebody, please make a Google Reader app that isn’t slow as molasses running downhill!

The remaining 20% of my usage is mostly spent checking Mail, Facebook, Twitter and the score of the Yankees game. Oh, and the Camera. I own a Canon 5D Mark II but I still take 99% of my photos with my iPhone.