Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) still leads the growing mobile gaming market but competition may be just over the horizon. The tech giant’s main rival Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) hopes to own a chunk of the market with the Smartphone GamePad which can be used with the Galaxy lineup.
Samsung competes with Apple using GamePad
This particular device can connect to devices ranging from 4″ to 6.3″ devices. Users will be able to connect their devices to their television sets via AllShare Screen Mirroring or an HDMI cable. This game pad connects to both smartphones and tablet computers via Bluetooth.
This new gaming device is optimized exclusively for Android 4.3 and beyond. This device is available in European markets only.
Google Play is a rising star
As a whole, Android made significant strides in the mobile gaming market. According to app analytics firm Distimo’s recent review 2013 Year in Review, Google Play grew in Asian markets leading South Korea, Japan, and China. The first two countries are part of the three fastest-growing markets in the world. Unfortunately it’s hard for Distimo to track China’s market because of the saturation of competing Android app stores.
AllThingsD added, “Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s App Store is still doing just fine, thank you very much: The report estimates that daily revenue for the Top 200 iOS apps grew from $15 million in November 2012 to $18 million in November 2013. But Google is growing its share of the pie at a far faster clip, with the Top 200 apps grossing $12 million per day, up from only $3.5 million the year before. That’s huge. Distimo’s top-grossing charts for the year further solidify the case that this growth is coming from Asia. Whereas the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store’s top-grossing apps of 2013 are all the usual suspects, like Supercell’s Clash of Clans (No. 1), King’s Candy Crush Saga (No. 2), and EA’s The Simpsons: Tapped Out (No. 9), at least seven of the Top 10 Google Play titles are games for the Japanese and Korean messaging apps Line and KakaoTalk.”
This report also shows freemium still rules. Google Play’s free applications make up for about 98% (up from the impressive 89%) and the App Store’s revenues from paid revenues shrunk from 23% to 8% this year.
