ITV News

Twitterの最新数字

itvcnews — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:50:22 +0000

The Metric System

A blog about data by RJMetrics

New Data on Twitter’s Users and Engagement

Since my guest post on TechCrunch last fall, I’ve received frequent requests to update and expand upon my Twitter data analysis. As the Twitter API continues to improve, our ability to profile the company from the outside-looking-in becomes even stronger. I recently conducted an updated round of analysis and will be posting my findings in a series of posts here at The Metric System in the coming weeks.

Updating this analysis in RJMetrics was just a matter of a few clicks, and we could easily highlight the most interesting tidbits of new information. If you’d like that level of control of your own business’s data, you should try out our demo to learn more.

Today, I’m starting with an update of the basics: users and engagement.

Results Summary

We analyzed data through the end of 2009. Where the data overlapped with our previous analysis (which ran through August 2009), the findings were highly consistent. However, the updated data revealed the following noteworthy trends:

Twitter ended 2009 with just over 75 million user accounts.
The monthly rate of new user accounts peaked in July 2009 and is currently around 6.2 million new accounts per month (or 2-3 per second). This is about 20% below July’s peak rate.
A large percentage of Twitter accounts are inactive, with about 25% of accounts having no followers and about 40% of accounts having never sent a single Tweet.
About 80% of all Twitter users have tweeted fewer than ten times.
Only about 17% of registered Twitter accounts sent a Tweet in December 2009, an all-time-low.
Despite these facts, Twitter users are becoming more engaged over time when we control for sample age.

How We Did It (Again)

We are not associated with Twitter in any way and have no direct access to their backend data. However, we do have access to their API. This allowed us to take advantage of a few unique characteristics of the Twitter data set:

A Twitter user’s activity data (tweets, followers, etc) is all public by default
Twitter’s API allowed us to automatically download up to 20,000 data points per hour
Twitter uses auto-incrementing ID numbers (1,2,3,4…) for both users and tweets, and the percentage of unused numbers can easily be detected via the API
The central limit theorem tells us, among other things, that a large enough random subset of a large data set will behave like its parent set with a high degree of statistical confidence

We downloaded just under 2 million tweets from about 50,000 users to conduct this analysis. As before, one restriction we should note is that we were only able to download the most recent 3,200 tweets for each user. This means we may be missing part of the data for “power users” who have sent over 3,200 tweets (they represent less than a tenth of a percent of the Twitter population).

Number of Twitter Users

By leveraging the auto-incrementing ID numbers used by Twitter and our ability to predict the ratio of used to unused IDs, we identified the following data on new Twitter users by month:

As you can see, the number of new users per month is currently at about 6.2 million. This is an enormous number, but it is about 20% lower than the July 2009 peak of 7.8 million. In fact, the past 6 months have shown steady decline in the number of new account registrations.

The chart below is is a cumulative version of the chart above. It shows us the remarkable growth experienced by Twitter in 2009:

Twitter’s hockey stick continues to blaze a trail upward and to the right. As we identified above, the recent data points are showing a linear, rather than exponential, growth trajectory. Twitter ended 2009 with just over 75 million active user accounts.

Average Number of Followers

This is the area where we saw the most change from the August data. According to the data, the average Twitter user has 27 followers, down from 42 followers in August 2009. The distribution of users by follower count is shown below:

Back in August, the “0 Followers” piece of the pie was about 20%. Now it’s closer to 25%. A likely reason for the drop in average number of followers is Twitter’s rapid growth rate. A third of Twitter’s user base has joined up in the past 4 months, and we know (as shown in the chart below) that users acquire more followers the longer they are on the system.

As long as Twitter is acquiring new users at such a rapid rate compared to its average historical month, the average number of followers will be pushed downward by the “youngness” of the average user and the average number of followers will continue to drop. However, it is impossible to tell from this chart if the small stature of the 2009 bar is only due to user age or if additional variables (such as a change in user engagement levels) are at play.

To find out the truth, we will incorporate user engagement data into our analysis. A reliable way of quantifying user engagement is by studying Twitter’s most measurable user activity: tweeting.

Number of Tweets

Below we show a distribution of Twitter users by the number of status updates (“tweets”) they have ever sent.

As before, the “youngness” of the Twitter user population is surely skewing this data toward lower numbers, but even still the numbers we see are quite astounding: about 80% of all Twitter users have tweeted fewer than ten times. This is up from the 75% we detected when analyzing data through August 2009.

As you might expect, the average number of Tweets increases over a user’s lifetime. This is demonstrated below, where we show the average number of Tweets sent by the user’s join year.

Active Tweeters

Twitter has a massive number of user accounts, but we now know that a large percentage of them aren’t active. The chart below, which shows the percentage of registered accounts that sent at least one tweet each month, helps us reconcile these facts and quantify how engagement may be changing over time.

The percentage averages around 20% of accounts, although it was above 50% in Twitter’s earliest days. One concerning trend, however, is that this metric has consistently declined over the past six months, and is currently at an all-time low of 17%.

Note that, due to Twitter’s rapid user growth, the absolute number of users who tweeted that same month is probably one of the company’s highest ever, despite this all-time low percentage.

Cohort Analysis

We can use a cohort analysis to look at user behavior and loyalty over time. Below, we show five “cohorts,” each representing a specific week in Twitter’s history. A cohort consists of every user who made their first tweet in the specified week. The lines in this chart show what percentage of those users come back and tweet again in each subsequent week.

While there is a sizable usage dropoff in week 2, repeat tweeting then holds predictably steady at around 20% of the cohort. This is consistent with the findings in our previous analysis.

To take things a step further, we can define the y-axis of the chart to show the number of tweets sent across everyone in the cohort (rather than just the number of people in the cohort who sent anything). This will help show the total content contribution of the cohort in subsequent time periods. We group cohorts by month in this case:

This image alone shows us why Twitter remains a powerhouse despite the high percentage of inactive users.

First, despite the fact that only 20% of tweeters come back to tweet in their second month, those who do come back tweet so much that it makes up for all the people who left.

Second, users who joined more recently (the 2009 cohorts) tweet with far greater frequency in their first few months than their 2008 counterparts. This means that active users are actually becoming more engaged over time.

Conclusion

Analyzing Twitter is like a roller coaster ride:

When you look at new account registrations, no one can deny that Twitter is still growing like a rocketship (that’s good).
However, upon closer inspection, the rate of new user signups has dropped meaningfully from its peak and many new users never do anything with their accounts (that’s bad).
Furthermore, the percentage of accounts sending out tweets has steadily declined over the past six months (that’s worse).
However, our cohort analysis reveals tremendous loyalty and engagement from those Twitter users who stay on the system after their first week as members (that’s good).
In fact, those users who stay become more active over time, so much so that they make up for the missing activity from those users who leave (that’s incredibly good).

And, with 75 million total accounts, an active userbase of around 20% still leaves around 15 million highly active tweeters.

The data we pulled from Twitter’s API found a good home inside the RJMetrics dashboard, and your company’s data can too. We would love to share how to capture real value from the data in your backend database using RJMetrics. Try out our online demo to learn more.

This entry was written by robertjmoore and posted on January 26, 2010 at 12:01 am and filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

Zynga Removes CPA Offers After FishVille Suspension

itvcnews — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:36:25 +0000

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=26000

November 9, 2009

Social game developer Zynga (FarmVille, Mafia Wars) announced it is discontinuing all of its performance-based Facebook advertising until further notice, after taking fire for tactics that have users receive in-game currency in return for signing up for offers that often turn out to cost more than expected.

The company’s decision was more than likely spurred by Facebook’s temporary removal of its new FishVille game last weekend due to potentially confusing mobile subscription ads that showed up, which the social network prohibits.

TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington explained that: “These ads clearly violate Facebook’s terms and conditions. They don’t state on the offer page that the user is required to enter into a $10 – $20/month mobile subscription, and there is no opt in by the user before entering in personal information.”

Though FishVille was launched only two days prior to its suspension, the game had already attracted more than 875,000 users.

Zynga, which previously vowed to remove the mobile ads from its offers, claims the promotions showed up because of a technical glitch with its offer provider, and says that the mobile ads only appeared with 10 percent of pageviews.

CEO Mark Pincus admitted in a post on his weblog, “Zynga has not been able to control the ad content as it is managed by the offer companies that we work with.”

“We recognize it is our responsibility to ensure that offers which generate a bad user experience are not shown with any of our games,” he continued. “Therefore, we are removing all CPA [cost-per-action] offers across Zynga games until we can control their inclusion and presentation ourselves. …This move is worth it for the long-term user experience and value to our partners like Facebook and MySpace.”

The developer’s move to take out its CPA ads will come at no small cost, as those ads reportedly account for a third of Zynga’s total revenues — though Pincus said it’s significantly less, claiming yesterday that the lead generation offers actually made up less than 20 percent of the company’s revenues. Zynga believes it needs to have complete control over the offer approval process before it can commit to 100 percent compliance.

“Currently no partner offers a work flow that we can be completely confident in and that is why we chose to remove the offers till we can put it in place,” said Pincus in an email to VentureBeat. “We do not have an estimate as to when that will happen but are working with our partners to insure a superior user experience where our users can avail themselves of high quality offers, each of which has been vetted by us for compliance and quality.”

VB: Social game development platform raises funding from DeNA

itvcnews — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:00:58 +0000

http://venturebeat.com/2009/10/29/aurora-feint-raises-funding-from-big-japanese-mobile-portal-operator/

October 29, 2009 | Dean Takahashi | Comments |

Aurora Feint, which makes iPhone games more social and easily discovered, has raised a multimillion-dollar round of funding from DeNA, the largest Japanese operator of mobile social networks and mobile virtual goods platforms.

DeNA, which operates a mobile portal with 15 million users in Japan, is also using Aurora Feint’s social gaming platform in its newest smartphone in the Japanese market. And Japanese game publisher Hudson Soft will become the first partner for Aurora Feint’s OpenFeint platform in the Japanese market. Hudson’s upcoming Bomberman mobile game will use OpenFeint.

All of this attention represents a key international expansion for Aurora Feint. Japan is one of the most active mobile markets in the world. The OpenFeint platform makes it easy for companies to “socialize” games. It lets gamers view high scores on leaderboards, show off achievements to friends, and purchase related games. Publishers can use it to cross promote games to a community of customers. That builds customer loyalty and engages customers for a longer time, attacking the attention deficit disorder that plagues gamers faced with too many app choices.

DeNA will now own a 20 percent stake in Burlingame, Calif.-based Aurora Feint. Peter Relan, chairman of Aurora Feint, (right) said in an interview that DeNA is an ideal partner because of its experience in building social networks for mobile users and its strong partnerships with game companies such as Hudson. About 70 percent of older Japanese teens use DeNA’s Mobage-town portal, which generates $200 million in annual revenue. Masato Shibata, a corporate officer of Hudson, said that his company plans to release several games using OpenFeint.

OpenFeint, which debuted in December, 2008, has more than 200 games that use its platform in Apple’s AppStore. More than 500 other titles are under development, and the company has 2,500 registered app developers.

Aurora Feint has 19 employees and was founded in 2007. Its rivals include Scoreloop and Ngmoco’s Plus+ platform.

VB: Asian virtual goods market is seven times bigger than U.S.

itvcnews — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:57:44 +0000

http://venturebeat.com/2009/10/30/asian-virtual-goods-market-is-seven-times-bigger-than-u-s/

October 30, 2009 | Dean Takahashi | Comments |

The virtual goods industry in Asia is generating about $7 billion a year in revenue, about seven times the number in the U.S.

The gulf is so large it is resulting in big valuation differences between Asia and North America. China’s nine largest publicly traded online game companies have a valuation of $52 billion, compared to just $22 billion for the top four North American and European companies, according to Ben Joffe, analyst at +8*, speaking at the Virtual Goods Summit in San Francisco today (pictured below).

The comparison is humbling, considering the hype around the rapid growth of the U.S. market. Virtual goods don’t exist in the real world. They’re digital bits such as weapons or character clothing in games. Game companies have figured out that they can offer consumers free games as an attraction, and a sizable percentage of those consumers will pay for virtual goods in small transaction amounts. One of the hottest markets is buying virtual goods to grow crops in farming games, as our story last night showed.

The virtual goods market took off in Asia first because they were a way to monetize online games, which were the only titles that took off in Asia because of retail game piracy. Online games couldn’t be easily copied because users had to authenticate themselves when they logged in. At first, subscriptions ruled, as they do with the biggest online fantasy role playing game, Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. But now the virtual goods market has taken hold.

Asia was the first region where virtual goods topped $1 billion, with much of the action starting around 2005. South Korea’s Nexon was one of the first companies to pioneer the virtual goods business model in its online role-playing games, the most popular of which is MapleStory, which has more than 92 million registered users. In China, Tencent is expected to generate revenues of $1.5 billion to $2 billion from its QQ chat/game service, with most of that money coming from virtual goods revenue. China’s total market could generate over $5 billion in virtual goods revenue in 2009, Joffe said.

Japan also has a big virtual goods market. That country’s top three social networks are generating more than $1 billion in revenues, mostly through mobile games and services. In Japanese games, some rare virtual items are worth more than $1,000, due to their scarcity. More commonly, you can buy a rare virtual horse for $60. Korea, meanwhile, is generating about $1 billion in virtual goods revenue.

Since virtual goods are just beginning to catch on with U.S. gamers, the potential revenues from virtual goods is huge here, Joffe said. He guessed that the potential revenues are $3 billion to, gulp, $35 billion in the best case scenario.

The names of the top Asian social networks companies are virtually unknown here. In China, the leaders are Tencent, Renren, Kaixin001, and 51.com. In Korea, it’s Cyworld. In Japan, it’s Mixi, Gree, Nani Suru, and DeNA. Many of those companies are making more money than U.S. social networks such as Facebook. The Asian companies are also moving into the U.S. The No. 7-ranked app developer on Facebook is 6Waves, a Hong Kong company that has created 104 applications.

For U.S. companies trying to make money in virtual goods, Joffe has a message: “Better hurry.”

TC: Measuring the Success of Social Games

itvcnews — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:26:03 +0000

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/29/how-to-measure-the-true-stickiness-and-success-of-a-facebook-app/

How To Measure The True Stickiness (And Success) Of A Facebook App

by Guest Author on October 29, 2009

This is a guest post by Nabeel Hyatt, Founder and CEO of Conduit Labs, which is the creator of Loudcrowd and other social games that help you experience music with your friends. His personal blog can be found at nabeelhyatt.com and he can be followed on Twitter @nabeel.

Yesterday, Facebook announced they are going to drastically alter the way applications can message users once again, likely throwing a wrench into every app developers’ growth rate. Hints of the coming turmoil appeared last week when Facebook changed the way feeds work. This caused enough worry that apparently Mark Pincus, Founder/CEO of Zynga, canceled his appearance at Harvard Business School so he could sit with his team and figure out what the impact would be to the viral rates of their massive hits such as Farmville and Cafe World. That’s not surprising, since getting posts in the feed is critical to continued growth, but the myopic focus on the “viral rate” by some in the industry has created an over-dependence on perhaps the wrong number.

(As an aside, those who complain about Facebook being an unreliable channel to build a business off of should try dealing with a retailer such as Best Buy. They will be happy to take a 50% cut of your revenue and then one week decide to eliminate your entire section of products and ship them back to you. Oh, and they’ll bill you for the shipping.)

In all the talks about virality the general focus is on the new, clever, and sometimes underhanded ways to increase your viral rate. What gets lost is the core message that, as Siqi Chen of Serious Business puts it, viral messaging tactics are just a force multiplier on the inherent viralness of your product. Or, in simpler terms, how good your product is in the eyes of your users actually is the most important thing. Viral messaging is just a way of greasing the skids on that user’s intent. It is an important later step, but not the root.

And how do we measure that intent? It turns out that in Facebook at least, the level of retention is the best public number to predict likelihood of a hit.

Real retention numbers for other people’s products are notoriously hard to come by, but in Facebook there is good 30 day retention data called the DAU/MAU Ratio – which can also be called Stickiness. This is the ratio of Daily Active Users to Monthly Active Users. For example, a DAU/MAU ratio of 50% would mean that the average user of your app is using it 15 out of 30 days that month.

It turns out this simple metric is enough to predict, with a high level of probability, the success of a product. For example, look at the correlation between the following set of Facebook games.

Here we have games that fit a broad set of criteria, in terms of brand association, demographic appeal, play style, and time since launch. See how the second column and the fourth column are almost perfectly in order? Despite this broad cross-section of games it appears there is a very direct correlation between stickiness and success. Let’s take a deeper view of the data.

For those who aren’t stat geeks, this is called the coefficient of determination (R2) and predicts whether two correlated data sets accurately predict future success. If everything lined up perfectly on the linear regression line above you would have an R2 value of 1, and then we could say there is a perfect correlation between Stickiness (x axis) and the Size of the app (y axis). Using these social games we have a rather astonishing “fit” of 0.77.

Stepping back, this data is quite remarkable actually, since you would expect Stickiness to go down as you get huge. It would stand to reason that your 20 millionth user, who might be experiencing their first Facebook game, is going to be harder to retain than your 1,000th. The fact that this is not happening yet, that no one has found the edge of users where suddenly retention metrics collapse, says something very powerful indeed about the potential size of the social gaming market.

But it isn’t the market size implications that are the big takeaway, the relationship between Stickiness and success is. This of course will also cause a messaging arms race around retention, and the prevalence of Free Gifts is a good example of that already happening. But just as with the viral rate it’s important to remember those are all simply tactics to enhance a products inherent retention. The clear inference is that building something users love to come back to is the best predictor of success.

TC: Social Game Revenue Source

itvcnews — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:57:28 +0000

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/social-games-how-the-big-three-make-millions/

Social Games: How The Big Three Make Millions

by Michael Arrington on October 26, 2009

So much for the first generation of big Facebook/MySpace social application startups. Slide and RockYou both got huge valuations in venture rounds. But a new generation of application developers has taken center stage and are racking up big revenues and their own eye popping valuations: Zynga, Playfish and Playdom.

All three own popular social games on Facebook and MySpace. Zynga’s Farmville has 61 million monthly users. Playfish’s Pet Society has 21 million monthly users on Facebook. And Playdom has 16+ million monthly users of Mobsters on MySpace and Facebook Combined.

All three companies are getting a ton of press and investor attention. Zynga wants to go public next year. Playfish probably already got bought by EA for $400 million or more. And Playdom probably raised an unannounced big chunk of venture capital over the summer.

These three companies may be generating as much as $300 million annually on sales of virtual goods. Need a shotgun to do that next job on Mobsters? No problem. Pay with a credit card, paypal, or your mobile phone and it’s all yours. And people are obviously very willing to buy these virtual goods. Nothing new there.

The goal of all of these games is to get to a higher level, and generally have more fun growing things or killing things faster than your friends. Get addicted to the free version, then start spending to move things along more quickly. Once people are committed, it’s easy to get them to pay. You can read all about it on Business Week.

Except Business Week didn’t mention the dark side of the business at all.

All three companies are willing to give game currency in exchange for offers. Sign up for Netflix. Buy a ringtone subscription. Or energy drinks. Sign up for a credit card. Get car insurance. Take an IQ survey that requires a $9.99/month mobile subscription to see the results. We even found one for arthritis medication. Here’s how it all looks. One executive we spoke with says that 70% of total revenue from these applications may come in from lead generation, not direct payments. Netflix alone will pay $30-$40 for a free trial (requires credit card).

Three companies control most of these lead generation offers: TrialPay (appears to have the most legitimate offers), Offerpal and SuperRewards.

There’s nothing wrong with basing a business off of lead generation, although some of the offers are pretty sketchy (long term credit card or mobile subscriptions for little or no value). And the FTC does tend to take a swipe at them periodically. But the bigger problem is that advertisers may not be getting much for their payouts. As the higher quality advertisers bail, pressure to add the scam artists increases.

The cycle of all of these games is pretty standard. Get new users playing for free, give them incentives to message all their friends to signup, hit them hard for cash or lead generation for revenue, and move them up the levels. Rinse. Repeat.

TC:日本のベストiPhoneアプリ32種一挙紹介―すべて英語版あり

itvcnews — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:55:43 +0000

http://jp.techcrunch.com/archives/20090906japans-32-best-iphone-apps-all-available-in-english/

by Serkan Toto on 2009年9月9日

日本人は大の携帯マニアだということはよく知られている。国産メーカーが毎年100種類以上の端末を売り出す（中には本当にスゴイものもある）中、AppleのiPhoneは実は日本でも相当に売れている。日本での独占チャンネルであるSoftBank Mobileは公式データを発表してないが、推測によれば、現在までのトータル販売台数は100万をはるかに超えているという。日本のように競争の激しいマーケットへの新参者としては決して悪くない数字だ。つまり、発売当初の一部ブログでの懸念とはうらはらに、iPhoneは日本で間違いなく人気を得ている。

日本のデベロッパーたちも世界市場に向けてiPhoneアプリを開発すべきだとすでに気付いた。この記事では、私の独断と偏見によるベスト日本製アプリを紹介してみたい。すべて英語版が利用できる。（ただし、今回はCapcom、 Konami、 Sega、 Namcoなど大手企業によるアプリは除外し、個人やスタートアップが開発したアプリに限った）。

私の個人的なイチオシは素晴らしい（かつ無料の）GPSベースの写真共有アプリ、Memory Treeだ（この記事で紹介する他のアプリと同様、全世界で利用可能）。以下、6つのカテゴリー（ゲーム、生産性ツール、写真とイラスト、音楽、その他）に分類して32種のアプリを一挙紹介する。

なお、この記事をまとめる上で林信行さんに大いに協力していただいた。深く感謝したい。

ゲーム

1. Gang Street Wars / DigiDock （iTunesrリンク： $1.99で特別セール中 / 無料版）
リアルタイム戦略ゲームとタワーディフェンス・ゲームのミックス。横スクロール。中毒性高し。マンガ的なグラフィックスでギャング戦争を描いている。プレイヤーはギャングのボスになって、いろいろな戦闘技能を持つ手下を送りこんで敵のアジトを乗っ取る。

2. Broadway Cafe /Artscape ＆ Istpika （$4.99）
プロがデザインした高度なレストラン・シミュレーション・ゲーム。プレイヤーはウィター、支配人、オーナー役となって店の中を走り回り、注文を受けたり料理を運んだり皿洗いをしたりする。同時に店のインテリアデザインや収支計算にも気を配らなければならない。見た目よりそうとうに複雑なゲームだ。このゲームにはFacebook版もあり、こちらはFacebookの友達をゲームに招待することができる（デモビデオ）

3. Glandarius Wing Strike / IZUMOGASIN （$4.99 / 無料版）
ハードは2Dシューティング・ゲームだがビジュアルが素晴らしい。縦スクリールで、かなり長い6ステージに分かれており、ボス・ファイトや同時撃墜などをフィーチャーしている。BGMもクールだ。初期バージョンは難しすぎたためメーカーは後で初心者モードを追加した。iPhone向け2Dシューティング・ゲームとしては間違いなくベストの一つ。

4. Samurai Chess / Conit （$2.99 / 無料版）
名前でお分かりのとおり、サムライをテーマにした3Dチェス・ゲームだ。プレイヤーは世界中のSamurai Chessプレイヤー（ただし3GまたはWi-Fi接続が必要）とオンライン対戦できる。コンピュータ対戦も可能。

5. iYamato / Geppetto ($0.99 / 無料版)
2D種ーティング・ゲーム。プレイヤーは伝説の戦艦、大和を敵機の攻撃から防御する。そう複雑なゲームではないが、アクションが軽快でときおり10分くらいヒマつぶしをするのに好適。（デモビデオ）

6. LightBike / Pankaku （$2.99 / 無料版）
LightBikeは数か月前にアメリカのApp Storeで売上ナンバーワンになったことがある。こちらは3Dでオートバイのレースとアクションをフィーチャーしている。ビジュアルの雰囲気はSF映画のTronに似ている。Wi-Fi を使って、わずか2台のiPhoneで最高4人までのプレイヤーが対戦できる。（デモビデオ）

7. Vay / SoMoGa （$4.99）
オリジナルは1994にリリースされたSegaのメガCDマシン用のゲーム「流星の鎧」。Vayは過去最高の2D RPGの一つだ。グラフィックスはキュートなアニメ・スタイル。設定はレトロなSF風。音声は英語。懐かしいアクション満載。 SoMoGa（フロリダのタラハシーのスタートアップ）はオリジナルのゲームを完璧にiPhoneアプリ化することに成功している。

8. newtonica / Field System （$ 4.99）
不思議な雰囲気だが、美しいデザインのアクション・ゲーム。球体を動かして同じ色の流星に当てる。日本のApp Storeでベストセラーになった。音楽も良い。（デモ、ビデオ）.

9. newtonica2 / Field System （$ 0.99/ 無料版）
オリジナルのnewtonicaの続編。アクションとパズルのミックス。価格は前のバージョンより安く、ゲームとしての仕上がりも改良されている。36ステージもあるのでかなり長く楽しめするだろう。（デモビデオ）　一種のアドオン、newtonica2 resortも提供されている。（こちらも$0.99）

10. iNinja / Geppetto ($1.99 / 無料版)
実は日本の会社が作ったニンジャ・ゲームはそれほど多くない。これはその数少ない一つ。敵の忍者の攻撃を手裏剣で防いだり、短刀で攻撃したりする。28レベルある。Wi-Fiモードでは2人のプレイヤーの対戦もできる。

11. ExZeus / Hyper Devbox （$0.99）
3Dレール・シューティング・ゲーム。サウンド、グラフィックスはSpace Harrier風で優れている。巨大ロボットを操ってエイリアンと戦う。それほど長いゲームではないが、コストパフォーマンスは抜群。（デモビデオ）

生産性ツール
12. Zeptoliner / Ubiquitous Entertainment （$6.99 / 無料版）
アウトライン・ソフト。アイディアを組織化して整理することができる。思いついたことをまず適当に書き留め、続いてさまざまなツールを使って階層的に整理していくことができる。ユーザーのコンピュータのOPML（アウトライン・プロッセサー・マークアップ言語）ファイルをインポートして文書の編集に利用することもできる。（デモビデオ）.

13. ZeptoPad 3.0 / Ubiquitous Entertainment ($19.99)
上のアプリと同じ会社の製品だが、こちらはバーチャル・ホワイトボード機能を提供する。かなり高額のアプリだが、ベクター処理によるイラスト機能を備えており、驚くほど機能豊富だ。ユーザーのiPhone上の操作がリアルタイムでプロジェクタやデスクトップ・コンピュータのモニタに映し出される。機能のすべてはとても紹介しきれないのでこちらで詳しい情報を見てほしい。下のビデオも必見。

14. gottaDo2 / Istpika ($2.99)
ソーシャルタスク管理ツール。アプリの中にはキュートなモンスターが住んでいて、ユーザーがタスクを順調に達成していくと成長する。あまり怠けていると怒りだしたりする。FacebookのgottaDoアプリと連携させることが可能。

15. PokéDia by s21g ($2.99)
日記兼予定管理アプリ。16ヶ国語版が提供されている。それぞれのページが1日分のバーチャル日記帳になっており、左右にスワイプしてページを繰る。スクリーンのどの場所でもメモを書きとめることができる。書き込みはページ内を自由に動かせるし、別のページにも移せる。タスク管理にも使える。（デモビデオ）.

Category: Tools
16. TapNext by Conit ($3.99 / 無料)
このアプリはiPhoneをプレゼンのリモコンとして使えるようにする。開発元のConitによると、Powerpoint、Keynote、OpenOfficeImpress をサポートしており、かつWi-Fiでも3Gでも使えるこの種のソフトは世界で初だという。このアプリを利用すれば、ユーロッパにあるパソコンでSkypeを通じてアメリカの聴衆にプレゼンを行うことができる。（詳しい情報とデモビデオ）

17. ServersMan by FreeBit (無料)
今年の2月にリリースされたこのアプリは、iPhoneを個人用のミニ・ウェブサーバに変える。現在でも日本のApp Storeでもっとも人気のあるソフトの一つ。OS 3.0bに対応して、さらに有用な機能が追加された。（詳しい情報こちら）。非常に優秀なソフトで、しかも無料だ。

写真、イラスト

18. PlayPix 3 snaps / LivingImage ($2.99 for a limited time)
PlayPixはAnimotoのiPhoneアプリの軽量版といったところ。ユーザーの写真アルバムから3枚の写真を選び、グラフィックスのテーマを選ぶとBGM入りのスライドショーが自動的に作成される。スライドショーはiPhoneに保存することもできるし、YouTube、Facebookに投稿することもできる。またTwitterやメールに添付して友達に送ることもできる。私がテストしたときはPlayPixの方がAnimotoのiPhoneアプリより処理が速かった。（デモビデオ）。

19. Memory Tree / XeNN （無料）
GPSベースの写真共有アプリというのはすごいアイディアだ。世界中どこでもよいから写真を撮って、iPhoneを振ると、その場所の位置情報が自動的に付加された写真がサイトにアップロードされる。テキストによるコメントをつけることもできる。MemoryTreeユーザーがiPhoneを捕虫網のように振るとその場所のジオ・タグを付与された他のユーザーの写真を見ることができる。（同一場所機能）

このアプリには同一時間ボタンもあり、過去一時間以内に世界のユーザーが撮った無数の写真が場所に関係なくすべて表示される。つまりこのアプリは写真によって時間と空間をまたいだ共有記憶を作りだそうとしている。大変クールな試みだ。

20. Koredoko / Kawabatafarm　（無料）
このアプリはユーザーが撮影したジオタグ付き写真をGoogle Maps上に表示してくれる。（デモビデオ）。

21. TiltShift Generator / Takayuki Fukatsu （$0.99で特別セール中）
この作者は写真関係の人気アプリを7種類も作成している。プロにも好評で実際の写真展の作品に使われたこともある。TiltShift Generatorは is Fukatsu’氏の最新のアプリでiPhoneのカメラでレトロな雰囲気の写真が撮れる。（サンプル）。他のアプリも要チェック。

22. Art Remix / Appliya Studio （無料）
このアプリはアイディアが面白い。Appliyaは東京のiPhoneアプリの開発企業だが、Appliya StudioというiPhoneアプリ開発サービスを提供している。アーティストや写真家は、このプラットフォームを利用すれば、まったく技術知識を必要とせず、自分の作品をコンテンツとしてiPhoneアプリを制作し、App Storeで全世界に販売することができる（料金は最高で5万円）。すでに数多くのアプリがリリースされているが、Art Remixもそのひとつだ。日本で活躍しているアーティスト23名の作品が搭載されており、ユーザーは背景とパーツを組み合わせて、オリジナルアート作って壁紙にしたり、友達に送ったりできる。

23. Ukiyo-e Beauties / Appliya ($3.99)
有名作者による日本の伝統的技法の美人画コレクション。絵が5点と浮世絵版画20点。（解像度は1150 x 800ピクセルで4にズームできる）。Appliyaや美術史を専門とする大学教授2人と協力して数か月がかりでこのアプリを開発した。（デモビデオ）。

音楽
24. NESynth / New Forestar ($1.99)
音楽好きのオールド・ゲーム・ファンにはたまらないアプリだ。バーチャル・シンセは栄光の80年代の8bitゲーム・マシン風の音を出す。P2Pモードでは他のユーザーが演奏しているのを自分のiPhoneで聞くことができる（デモビデオ）

25. Rekords / Delaware （$1.99）
Rekordsは日本の音楽レーベルだが、iPhone/iPodだけを対象に音楽を販売している。私は最初の「レコード」 (iTunes link)を買ってみた。音楽はかなり奇妙なものだったが、英語の歌詞の曲が2曲入っていて、iPhoneを振るとA面からB面に切り替わり、同時にバーチャル・ビニール・ジャケットも変わる。バーチャル「レコードプレイヤー」のアームを指で動かすと曲の好きな場所に移動できる。

26. PocketGuitar by Shinya Kasatani ($0.99)
すでに世界的なベストセラーになっているが、このアプリはバーチャル・ギターだ。表示される6弦を押さえたり弾いたりして演奏する。6種類のギター族の楽器（ウクレレまで入っている）がサポートされている。さまざまなパラメータをいじって音質をカスタマイズできる。（デモビデオ）

27. iShakuhachi by GClue ($0.99)
尺八は日本の伝統楽器で竹でできた笛の一種だ。現在では日本人でも耳にする機会は減っている。ユーザーはiPhoneのマイクに息を吹きかけることでバーチャル尺八の演奏ができる。iPhoneを傾けたり、5つの指孔を押さえることで望みの音が出せる。GClueはiKoto（日本式の琴）も作っている。

その他
28. Quick Pigeon / Ubiquitous Entertainment （無料）
キュートなプッシュ通知タイプのメッセンジャー・アプリで、バーチャル伝書鳩がユーザーの連絡相手に簡単なイェス/ノーで答えられる質問を持って飛んでいく。受信者はコンピュータまたはiPhoneでメッセージを受け取る。イェス/ノーのボタンを押すと、その結果は送り手にプッシュ式に通知される（アラーム・サウンド付き）。

29. Bijin Tokei by PHIRIA ($2.99)
「美人時計」（英語でいえばHot Girl Clock）には日本人女性1440人の写真が掲載されている。女性たちがそれぞれ現在の時刻を示したサインボードを掲げている写真が毎分入れ替わって時計になるというユニークなアプリだ。（正確にいえば、モデルの女性は数分にわたって同一人物だ）。

30. Wikiamo / Satoshi Nakagawa （無料）
Wikiamoは数日前にリリースされたWikipediaの公式アプリ（iTunes link）よりずっと良い。こちらの方がWikipediaのページがずっと読みやすい。また表示速度も体感的に速い。一部の記事はページ・キャッシュ機能を利用してオフラインでも読める。それ以外にも公式アプリにない機能がサポートされている。

31. NatsuLion by Takuma Mori （無料）
「夏ライオン」はiPhone向けのシンプルなTwitterクライアントの一つ。処理は非常に速く、操作も簡単だ。無料アプリだが広告などは一切入らない。

32. Amamiya Momo by Xtone ($2.99)
Amamiya Momo〔天宮もも〕はiPhoneに住むアニメのバーチャル・ガールフレンドだ。ユーザーと対話してくれるが、なかなかデリケートな気分屋だ。たとえば、彼女はユーザーが外出しているときより家にいてリラックスしているときの方がやさしい。もものムードは一日のうちの時刻によっても変わる。事前にプログラミングされた200もの行動パターンが組み込まれている。音声サンプルは日本語だが英語の字幕が表示される。GPSデータをベースにしている。詳しい情報はこちら。.

注記
先週いっぱい私はこの記事を書くために膨大な数の日本の会社のサイトを見て回ったのだが、残念ながらほとんどの会社の解説の英文はひどいものだった。一部の英文はあまりにめちゃくちゃで何を言っているのかどうしても分からなかった。ただでさえ恥ずかしい状況だが、まして製品を世界に向けて有料で販売しようとしているのだったら、このようなことではとても困るのだが。

もう一つ不思議なことがある。何か月も前にアメリカのApp Storeに登録されているのに、いつまでたってもそれ以外の外国のストアに登録されないアプリが多い（私はドイツ人なのでドイツのAppStoreで主に購入している）。なぜなのだろう？　

WSJ: VentureWire Technology Showcase (Mobile)

itvcnews — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:48:08 +0000

http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2009/10/23/for-mobile-start-ups-its-location-location-location/

October 23, 2009, 6:19 PM ET

Location remains a red-hot area for developers of mobile technology. Whether that word appears at the top of an entrepreneur’s business plan, or whether it’s just a footnote, it’s clearly crucial as phones, applications and networks continue to evolve.

Geodelic’s Sherpa application.

A large share of the 15 up-and-coming mobile tech companies that presented at the recent Dow Jones VentureWire Technology Showcase prominently feature a location component as part of their value proposition. And they’ve raised millions of dollars on the strength of their ideas.

“We are pushing answers to your phone before you ask for them,” Sanjeev Agrawal, a mobile-tech entrepreneur, told VentureWire recently.

Agrawal’s company, Aloqa Inc., was one of the exhibitors. Aloqa’s application finds a user’s location with cell towers rather than the phone’s GPS chip, a tweak that the company says conserves the phone’s battery power. One the user is pinpointed, the app offers 15 different channels of information on what can be found nearby, including channels for restaurants, nightclubs, gas stations, ATMs, people and other attractions. The Palo Alto-based company has raised about $1.5 million.

Two traffic-information apps featured at the Tech Showcase – Aha Mobile Inc. and TrafficCast Inc. – have raised $3 million and $4.5 million, respectively. Both track a user’s location, and serve information accordingly. They face the challenge of how to push information to a driver without causing him to look away from the road. Aha Mobile’s app functions like a radio, where a user sets up preset buttons for various kinds of information, like accident reports. The preset buttons eliminate search, which is dangerous while driving. TrafficCast, on the other hand, offers its traffic and weather updates on TomTom NV’s navigation device.

Other companies, rather than putting the location element front and center, have simply added location to services that consumers and professionals already like.

San Francisco-based Zannel Inc., for example, has added location elements to instant messaging and social networking. The company’s CityWatch app for the iPhone enables users to “geotag” the photos and other media they upload. A user can see a graphic representation of their own neighborhood, and keep track of the other media posted to the network from the neighborhood. Zannel has raised $16 million from three VC firms.

And Sunnyvale, Calif.-based MobileIron Inc., whose app enables a sort of cloud-computing system for workforce mobile devices controlled by an IT director, has also added a location component. In addition to saving companies money on their phone bills by placing a phone-management system inside the company’s data center, the app can pinpoint user location to track roaming charges. It also features a mapping program for finding lost phones. The company has raised $20 million from Norwest Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital and Storm Ventures.

Other Technology Showcase exhibitors have made apps that begin with a user’s location, then offer services on top of it.

Santa Monica, Calif.-based Geodelic Systems Inc., for example, has developed a location-aware search engine for smartphones. The application uses proprietary technology to pinpoint a user, then offers a search engine with preset buttons for finding events, people and businesses in the area. The company has raised $3.5 million from venture investors, and is on the hunt for more capital.

San Francisco-based 1020 Placecast Inc. serves advertisements to customers’ phones based on their location. The company says its algorithm can find the right advertisement for the right user. Placecast, which has raised $2 million, offers an “opt-in” feature to its advertisements, meaning users have the final say on whether ads are sent to their phones or not. Most industry watchers say the opt-in feature is crucial to mobile ad campaigns, to avoid overwhelming consumers with ads they do not want.

Microsoft 2019

itvcnews — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:28:55 +0000

Retail

Banking

Manufacturing

Motorola Droid

itvcnews — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:32:24 +0000

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/10/19/motorola-droid-hands-on/

The new Motorola Droid.