A look at gadget happenings, as gaming content sales outside of new games in the US and Europe reaches US$3.3bn, the US Army launches an app store and Instagram opens a signup website for its upcoming Android app.
Gaming content sales outside of physical games reach US3.33bn in Q4 2011
Video game content sales in the US, UK, France and Germany, which excluded sales of new physical games in stores and online, reached US$3.33bn in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to new research.
According to NPD, the US made up most of this figure, with US$2.04bn. The UK generated almost US$508m, Germany generated US461m and France generated US$320m.
These sales included used games, game rentals, subscriptions, digital full-game downloads, social network games, downloadable content and mobile games. It did not include new games on discs sold both in stores or online.
US Army launches its own app store
The US Army has launched a prototype of the Army Software Marketplace, which gives its soldiers mobile training apps for their smartphones or tablets.
The store aims to deliver downloadable apps quickly across the US Army. The prototype is the army’s first step to establish and run its submission and approval process for apps which will let army members, organisations and third-party developers create apps for the store.
There are currently 12 publicly facing training apps in the store which were developed by army training schools in the Connecting Soldiers to Digital Apps initiative. These include an initial entry training guide, a guide on the army’s values, a social media handbook app and an app to help soldiers develop a performance work statement.
The store currently supports iOS apps but will soon offer Android apps. More apps will be added to the store as time goes on.
Instagram opens signup site for Android version
Popular photo-sharing app Instagram has opened a website which will allow users to get notified when the app gets its long-awaited debut on the Android platform.
The new website lets users submit their email addresses so they can stay informed about when Instagram will arrive on the Android platform.
Instagram’s co-founder Kevin Systrom said the app would arrive on Android soon. It was initially launched on iOS and became Apple’s app of the year last year. It lets users take photos, apply distinctive filters on them and share them with friends.
There is currently no set release date for the Android version of Instagram.
Stay informed – get daily updates on the latest happenings in technology directly to your inbox.
