Press

Entertainment conglomerates such as Walt Disney spend billions developing popular franchises. However, they’ve had mixed success translating those film, television, and theme park characters to smartphones, where more and more eyeballs are glued. The makers of some popular iPhone games are hoping they’ll have an easier time going in the opposite direction, and are trying to launch cross-media franchises based on their hit digital characters. “The new entertainment medium is apps,” says Paul A. Baldwin, chief marketing officer of Palo Alto (Calif.)-based Outfit7, whose Talking Tom app has been downloaded 50 million times.

Read the whole story on BusinessWeek.

The App Store is turning into a proving ground for Saturday morning cartoons, which means the screeching cat and his friends could soon be on a TV, cereal box and onesie near you.

Read the whole story on CNN.

This week’s Economist cover story, “A New Tech Bubble,” has people abuzz once again about how Silicon Valley is ripe for another fall. According to the article, irrational exuberance has gripped tech industry investors, and it’s only a matter of time before the general public is left holding the check, just like they did in 2001.

Read the whole story on GigaOm.

Outfit7, the maker of character-based mobile apps, recently passed 100 million downloads in just 10 months on the Apple App Store. That places the company in rarefied air with apps that have become pop culture cross-overs such as Rovio’s Angry Birds.

Read the whole Forbes article.

Last week, app developer Outfit7 announced a milestone with more than 100 million apps downloaded. So how do you follow up a feat such as this? By introducing your latest and greatest character, then having it skyrocket to the number one entertainment app within 48 hours.

Read the whole story on Mac|Life.

It looks like nine-figure numbers may soon become the benchmark by which we judge successful mobile developers.

Just a month after Finland’s Rovio passed the mark, Slovenia’s Outfit7 also crossed the 100 million downloads on the back of a series of talking character apps. We profiled the company back in January: its ambitions are big. The vision isn’t to be another mobile developer. It’s to become a toy company on the order of Mattel or Hasbro through the use of smartphones with touchscreens.

Read the whole story on Inside Mobile Apps.