We rarely “retweet” other people’s commentary, but Hillel Fuld at Tech’n’Marketing just posted an excellent, insightful interview with Peter Vesterbacka from Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds. This is worth reading for any Birds fan, but it also sheds light on the mobile platform wars. The link to the article is below, but our summary is as follows:
1. Massive Numbers. Angry Birds, launched on the AppStore in December 2009, has over 50 million downloads, and is played over 200 million minutes per day. So? For comparison, this year’s American Idol finale drew 19.6 million viewers.
2. iPhone Preferred. Vesterbacka’s quotes re mobile platforms:
- Apple will be the number one platform for a long time from a developer perspective….they have gotten so many things right
- Android ecosystem is fragmented….growing complexity….paid content just doesn’t work on Android
- MeeGo is clearly the future [for Nokia]…remains to be seen how big
- HP/Palm WebOS is a really cool OS….a pleasure to develop for.…but the volume is irrelevant for the time being
3. Flexible Monetization. Vesterbacka notes that different platforms require different models:
- Apple store works well, paid content can succeed
- Free works best for Android, doesn’t expect many to pay for no-ad version
- GetJar is their primary Android outlet out of multiple fragmented storefronts
Click here to see the original article and watch the video of Vesterbacka talking with the mobile ad team from Google.
