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Korean mobile games publisher Gamevil announced that it has amassed 3.37 billion KRW ($2.97 million USD) in net income during the first quarter of 2010, owing much of its overseas success to the popularity of its titles for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The company’s latest quarterly profits are a 99 percent increase from the 1.69 billion KRW earned in first quarter of 2009.

Gamevil’s sales are up from 4.12 billion KRW in the first quarter of 2009 to 6.30 billion KRW in the same period this year — a 52 percent increase.

Gamevil announced that this quarter’s sales were led by its successful Baseball Superstars and Zenonia franchises, and notes accelerated growth in the iTunes App Store and the Android Market overseas.

The company’s action-RPG sequel Zenonia 2 premiered for the iPhone and iPod Touch in March, and was the App Store’s biggest-selling title in the “Games” category in the week of its U.S. release.

Gamevil earned a total of 11.8 billion KRW in net income last year. The company attributes its increased profits to “success of hit franchises, unit price increase, virtual goods sales, and expansion to multi-platforms.”

“We’re proud to announce another extremely profitable quarter,” said Yong Kuk Lee, Gamevil’s Chief Financial Officer. “Opportunity for growth in the global market through open markets such as Apple’s App Store has been a big momentum. We will continue to promptly adapt to the rising base of advanced mobile platforms and deliveries through digital distribution.”

Tags: gamevil, Industry News, sales data

Apple’s iPad touch tablet has passed 1 million units in its first 28 days on sale — more than twice as fast as the iPhone reached that milestone, the company said today.

“One million iPads in 28 days — that’s less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone,” enthused Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Many industry-watchers weren’t certain at first what to make of the device, which was criticized by some as being simply a king-sized iPhone. But it’s clear consumers have embraced Apple’s aim to create a market segment in the narrow vertex between netbook computers and smartphones.

“Demand continues to exceed supply, and we’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers,” says Jobs.

The device sold more than 300,000 units on its first day. A recent survey showed that games comprise more than a third of the apps available for iPad.

The upsized screen, tilt and touch sensitivity and lap-friendly layout have presented brand-new opportunities for game development. Many companies who’ve found success with their iPhone games, like Electronic Arts and Ngmoco, were eager to seize on the new opportunity and backed the iPad with hundreds of games at launch.

[This news item was written by Leigh Alexander and originally appeared at FingerGaming sister site Gamasutra.]

Tags: Industry News, iPad, sales data

Developer Lima Sky announced that its smash hit iPhone app Doodle Jump has sold more than 4 million units since its launch in March of 2009.

The company plans to follow up on its success with an upgraded iPad version, to be released later this year.

Doodle Jump is one of the App Store’s most enduringly popular game apps, and has remained a consistent top-ten seller for several months in a row. Currently, the game ranks as the App Store’s fourth-best selling application across all categories.

Lima Sky notes that it will continue to update the iPhone and iPod Touch version of Doodle Jump with new content leading up to the release of the iPad edition. The most recent Doodle Jump update, released on April 20th, adds rocket power-ups to the game’s recently released space theme.

Tags: doodle jump, iPad, lima sky, sales data, Upcoming

Huge increases in iPhone sales and robust computer sales helped game-friendly tech powerhouse Apple nearly double its second quarter profits from $1.6 billion to $3.1 billion, despite flat iPod performance.

The company sold 8.75 million iPhones in the quarter that ended March 27, 2010, up 131 percent from the same quarter the previous year, and 2.94 million computers, up 33 percent.

Total iPhone sales, according to combined numbers from Apple’s quarterly results, now exceed 50 million units — a considerable install base for prospective game developers.

This quarter’s performance led Apple CEO Steve Jobs to characterize the period in an official statement as “our best non-holiday quarter ever,” and he went on to trumpet high expectations for the company’s new iPad device.

“Users are loving it, and we have several more extraordinary products in the pipeline for this year,” said Jobs.

iPod unit sales still outpace iPhone sales, with 10.89 million sold during the quarter, but that figure represents a 1 percent decline. Specific statistics for the iPod Touch, which plays many of the same games as the iPhone and had a 20 million installed based in September 2009, were not split out.

During an analyst conference call following the results, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said the iPhone’s App Store, which sells games and other software, is roughly breaking even, and that Apple is not looking to it as a profit driver.

“We are not focused on trying to make a lot of money on the App Store,” he said. The service now includes 185,000 apps, with four billion downloads completed to date across 90 countries, as well as 3,500 apps for the iPad — and games the largest App type for both stores.

[This news item was written by Chris Remo and originally appeared at FingerGaming sister site Gamasutra.]

Tags: Apple, Industry News, iPad, iPhone, sales data

Pocket God and Flight Control made headlines after surpassing two million sales units over the past week, and the free-to-play action game Waterslide Extreme has just celebrated a milestone of its own. Waterslide Extreme has now been downloaded more than 10 million times since its launch in July of last year.

Waterslide Extreme earned more than two million downloads in its first week of release, and topped Apple’s free app charts in 19 countries. The game, in which players tilt the accelerometer to descend a series of twisting 3D waterslides, was developed by Fishlabs to tie in with an advertising campaign for the UK credit company Barclaycard.

Waterslide Extreme saw a recent boost in popularity over the holiday season, which brought in another one million downloads from new iPhone and iPod Touch owners. After returning to the U.S. free app charts, the app now averages 40,000 downloads per day.

Fishlabs claims that Waterslide Extreme “may be the most internationally successful ad game in the App Store,” with players contributing to an average brand engagement period of 100 million minutes in the app’s first six months of release.

Tags: app store, barclaycard, dare digital, fishlabs, sales data, waterslide extreme

Apple’s quarterly profits rose nearly 50 percent on revenue growth of 32 percent year-over-year, as iPhone sales doubled over the same quarter in the previous year.

In fiscal Q1 2010, which ended December 26, 2009, Apple’s profits hit $3.38 billion, from $2.26 billion in Q1 2009, and its revenue climbed to $15.68 billion from $11.88 billion.

Part of that can be pinned on a surge in iPhone sales. The company sold 8.7 million units of the phone and entertainment/gaming device in Q1, up 102 percent from 4.3 million units the previous year.

The iPhone may be partially cannibalizing sales of its less-multitasking iPod cousin, however: iPod sales actually declined 7.5 percent year-over-year, from 22.7 million units to a still-substantial 21 million.

Overall, iPhone and iPod unit sales combined were up 10 percent, with the company’s game-dominated App Store continuing to surge in popularity. Bolt Creative’s Pocket God has just become the first App to sell 2 million units.

Apple saw a more clear-cut boost in sales of its pricier Mac laptops, which rose 33 percent from 2.5 million to 3.36 million. The company also realized a relative financial gain by changing how it records iPhone sales: it now books that revenue up front, while it previously deferred it over the device’s projected lifetime.

The results, which beat Wall Street’s expectations of roughly flat revenue, come just days before Apple is expected to announce its next major product: a portable tablet computing device.

[This news item was written by Chris Remo and originally appeared at FingerGaming sister site Gamasutra.]

Tags: Apple, Industry News, iPhone, sales data

After reaching one million units sold in June of last year, Firemint’s air traffic control simulation title Flight Control has reached another sales milestone. Firemint reports that the title has now sold more than two million units worldwide.

Firemint’s report arrives less than a week after developer Bolt Creative announced that its casual entertainment title Pocket God surpassed two million units in sales, becoming the first application in the iTunes App Store to do so.

Firemint notes that Flight Control achieved its sales target in less than a year, after launching in March of 2009. According to data released by the developer, Flight Control saw its biggest sales after its initial release, with an additional sales spike occurring in June after a content-expanding update.

Flight Control recently saw another rise in popularity over Christmas, though additional feature updates have not coincided with noticeable sales increases.

Tags: firemint, flight control, Industry News, sales data

Namco Bandai is yet another packaged goods publisher that is trying to make more headway in non-traditional digital markets such as social networks and digital downloads.

On Monday, U.S.-based Namco Networks said that it surpassed 23 million downloads on Apple’s App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch.

Namco Networks said it is averaging 36,450 downloads per day since the App Store’s opening in June 2008. A rep for Namco Networks told us that the total download amount includes both free and paid downloads, although the company did not immediately have a ratio at hand.

Namco has partially relied on popular franchises born in the arcade and home consoles in order to gain a foothold in digital markets, with App Store renditions of Pac-Man, Mr. Driller, Galaga and Ace Combat. The company has also released new properties such as Garters & Ghouls and Isaac Newton’s Gravity on the App Store.

The firm expects to continue its expansion into the App Store market with 20 more games to launch on the service this year. “With over 100,000 applications available and three billion downloaded apps, the App Store is booming,” said Jonathan Kromrey, general manager of Apple Games for Namco Networks.

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Tags: namco bandai, sales data

Snappy Touch founder Noel Llopis has charted the lifetime sales of his iPhone gardening sim Flower Garden, revealing a number of interesting details about the App Store marketplace and documenting the effectiveness of in-app purchases.

Describing Flower Garden as “a strange in-between app,” Llopis notes that Flower Garden was far from being what he would consider a major success. At the same time, however, Llopis estimates that his game earned more money than 99 percent of the apps currently available in the App Store.

In its first 10 months of release, Flower Garden earned just over $21,500 — enough to “barely” support a living for a single person, Llopis estimates. After a strong debut boosted by media coverage and Apple recognition, though, Flower Garden was earning less than $100 per day. Llopis then explored other tactics to increase his daily revenue.

In an attempt to drum up sales for Mother’s Day, Llopis temporarily dropped the price of Flower Garden…and suffered a loss of revenue as a result. “”Lesson learned,” Llopis warns. “Don’t make a sale unless your app is in a visible position (on a top chart somewhere). Flower Garden was nowhere to be seen, so the sale had no effect other than to cut profits by 33%.”

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Tags: flower garden, noel llopis, sales data, snappy touch

iPhone developer Tapulous announced that its Tap Tap Revenge rhythm franchise generates nearly $1 million in monthly revenue.

Citing data collected by research firm ComScore, Tapulous reports that the Tap Tap Revenge games have been downloaded more than 20 million times since the release of the original Tap Tap Revenge in July of 2008.

Since then, the company has launched the sequels Tap Tap Revenge 2 and 3, along with band-specific releases like Metallica Revenge and Lady Gaga Revenge.

While previous Tap Tap Revenge games were free-to-play, Tap Tap Revenge 3, released in October, was the first in the series to be released as a paid download. Tap Tap Revenge 3 features a wide variety of songs from a number of artists, all of which may be purchased for play from an in-app store. Tapulous also earns revenue from in-game advertising in its free releases.

Over 600 million levels of Tap Tap Revenge have been played across all versions to date. Tapulous notes that over 33 percent of iTunes App Store customers have played one of its games.

Tags: Industry News, Music, rhythm, sales data, tap tap revenge, tapulous