Edible Apple

Gameloft’s library of iPhone games reads like a “who’s who” list of popular and successful apps.  Hero of Sparta, Assassin’s Creed, Real Soccer 2010, and Gangstar: West Coast Hustle are just a few of Gameloft’s more well-known titles, and their place as a premier mobile software development studio is undisputed.

But Gameloft’s development efforts, for the time being, will remain closely tethered to the iPhone platform, despite an onslaught of new and impressive Android devices such as the Motorola Droid.  At a recent investor conference, Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Roechfort stated that Gameloft is planning to significantly cut their investment in the Android platform because they the Android Marketplace simply isn’t up to snuff as a mobile app store.

“It is not as neatly done as on the iPhone,” Rocefort stated, “Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue.  We are selling 400 times more games on iPhone than on Android,”

And therein lies the rub.  For as much hype as “iPhone killers” tend to generate, the bottom line is that developers will continue to swarm to the mobile platform that doesn’t necessarily have the largest installed base of users, but rather the platform that generates the largest number of downloads – and to that end, the iPhone is by far the most enticing platform for developers.

The iPhone has been extremely lucrative for Gameloft, with iPhone titles comprising 13% of Gameloft’s revenue during the last quarter.
via Reuters