According to Reuters, mobile publisher Gameloft intends to scale back its support of Google's Android platform, and Gameloft says that other mobile companies intend to do the same. Although Motorola and Sony Ericsson have chosen Android for several of their new models, it's clear that Apple's iPhone is dominating the market. Android's application store was cited as being particularly weak.
"We have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like ... many others," Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort said at an investor conference recently, adding about the Android app store, "It is not as neatly done as on the iPhone. Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue."
Gameloft's nine-month sales were up 18%, largely thanks to the iPhone, and games for iPhone generated 13% of Gameloft's revenue in the last quarter. "We are selling 400 times more games on iPhone than on Android," noted Rochefort.
3 Comments
November 23, 2009
They got in ahead of the curve, and now they're pulling out just as its picking up steam. Then once Android has reached its potential they'll find themselves completely out of the game. Doesn't sound smart to me. Were they really surprised by those figures? I mean, of course iPhone has 400 times the app sales...there is probably nearly that amount more iPhones in existence. However, Android has been growing by leaps and bounds lately, and only appears poised to continue this trend and these companies are short-sighted to pull out now. iPhone is tied to Apple whereas Android can be everywhere. Eventually and inevitabley the numbers will be there. These companies just need to be patient, and a little more realistic.
November 23, 2009
Yeah, that does seem weird. It would be like pulling out 2 weeks after the launch of the PS3 because XB360 apps were selling 5:1 or something. Most consumers hadn't even HEARD of Android until the recent marketing push. Most people haven't even SEEN an adroid phone or played a game on it.
Maybe this is just a convenient excuse for cutbacks actually made for other reasons.
November 23, 2009
It doesn't sound like they are completely pulling out. If Android really does start picking up a lot more steam I'm sure they'll reinvest more into the platform.