Top Made-in-China iOS Apps (Jan-Feb 2011)

Following the previous feature on the Top Made-in-China Apps of 2010, here’s the next post of the series as we continue to track and spotlight developers in China cashing in on global success with the Apple App Store. Chart estimates and observations as follows:

Top Grossing iOS Apps

These apps are ranked by estimated gross revenue from both paid apps, and apps with in-app purchases.

Top Free iOS Apps

These apps are ranked by the estimated number of downloads.

 
Observations

• Post-acquisition Triniti continues to dominate

  Following 2010 success and recent $40m acquisition, Triniti Interactive continues to dominate global charts with their unique brand of games, with Gamebox1 functioning very effectively with internal cross-promotion. The first 2 months of 2011 has seen Yoo Sports, and Gamebox 2 maintain high revenues, the reintroduction of iSniper3D as a free app, and the emergence of Doodle Truck.

  Triniti has come under criticism from some foreign press, who claim that Triniti’s ideas are often not very original. However, if one takes a close look, some of Triniti’s creations are not just plain redesigns of other games, they also go a step further in features and design in an effort to differentiate. Doodle Truck is one such game, that has taken initial inspiration from Mr Onion, loaded up a different set of gameplay modes, revved up with a different design, and is storming up the free and paid charts.
  
  
   

• Chinese Developers and Virtual Enterprise

  4 free games with in-app purchases for virtual goods – Haypi Kingdom, High Noon, Texas Poker, 三国杀Sanguosha and Empire Online have made the chart. It’s hardly surprising, since Chinese developers have been known for their virtual enterprise since the early days of Happy Farm.

  It’s interesting to note that heavyweights from other platforms have also shifted some gears towards to the App Store. Boyaa has been better known for their social games on online social networks, and Lakoo is also more recognised for their extensive catalogue of games on feature phones.

  I took a brief look at Boyaa’s 德州撲克 (Texas Poker). It seemed like it’s mostly mainland Chinese, HK/Taiwan, and Singaporean names playing. I started like this.
  

  Since I was trying the game purely for Techrice research, I had nothing to lose and wanted get a maximal experience in a limited time trial. I kept going “All in!” at 2 cards.

  5 minutes later, “likinwah” asked me to leave.
  
   

• Encouraging signs from Chinese Indies

  Following the indie trail blazed by Coconut Island Studio last year, more indie developers with small teams and non-existent marketing budgets are beginning to make their mark. Wang Xi has released a free version of his Virtual Table Tennis hit, and so has Ye Yizhan’s with 3D Marble Roll. Here’s a quick look into Virtual Table Tennis:
  

   

• Romance of the Three Kingdoms

  I recall playing ROTK3 when I was young, it used to look like this:
  

  Today, we have Beijing Astepgame’s Three Kingdoms TD.
  
   

• Social Networking Tools

  Tencent and Sina have clear intentions to go international. Releasing global iOS versions of QQ and 微博(Weibo) to connect Chinese all over the world is one firm step outward.
   

That’s all for this roundup. Hope you’ve enjoyed checking out some apps here. 2 app ranking charts above are brought to you by App Annie.

About App Annie

App Annie (www.appannie.com) is the leading sales analytics and market intelligence service for app publishers, agencies, and anyone doing research on the Apple App Store market. The sales analytics service is used by game publishers and Fortune 500 companies representing more than 25,000 apps, while the market intelligence service gets more than one hundred thousands visits per month. App Annie plans to complement its free offering with a premium paid offering officially launched early this year.