The iPhone – a gadget that you may love or hate but you definitely can’t deny its success. It has been one of the hottest selling gadgets ever since its inception, year after year, and it doesn’t look like it’s stopping anytime soon. As we eagerly await for the announcement of the next generation iPhone, Apple has been busy setting records with the iPhone 4 and the App Store. In the latest version of Guinness World Records 2011 Gamer’s Edition, Apple’s sleek, shiny, phone and the massive App Store has got a whole bunch of belts to its name.
Here are the top iPhone and App Store records that can be found in the book:
· Fastest-Selling Portable Gaming System – iPhone 4: Analyst estimates place the first-day sales of the iPhone 4, released on June 24, 2010, at 1.5 million units, making it the fast-selling portable gaming device in history. For comparison, the PSP shifted 200,000 units on its launch date in 2005, and the DS took a week to move 500,000 consoles in November 2004.
· Most Popular Application Marketplace - Apple App Store: With over 6.5 billion downloads since its launch in July 2008, the Apple App Store is the most popular downloadable app service in the world. As of September 2010 it hosts 259,470 apps for purchase of free download (a further 50,000 apps that were once available through the service have been discontinued). Of the apps currently available, 61 are flatulence simulators, a genre that includes such masterpieces as Fart Machine, Fart Ocarina and iFart – Epic Rip Edition.
· Largest Downloadable Video Game Store – Apple App Store: As of September 2010, there are 37,362 games available for download via the Apple App Store, making it the world’s largest downloadable video game store. By comparison, PC games download service Steam offers around 1,110 titles, the Xbox Live Indie Arcade has slightly more at 1,300 and the Japanese Virtual Console store for Wii offers 576 titles covering a good chunk of the back catalogues of both Sega and Nintendo.
· Largest Launch Line-up of Any Gaming System – Apple App Store: The Apple App Store’s launch on July 10, 2008 featured over 500 apps – including 145 were games – making it the “Largest Launch Line-up of Any Gaming System”.
· Top Paid-For App Store Game in Most Countries – Angry Birds (Chillingo, 2009): Physics puzzler Angry Birds has been recognized as the top paid-for game in Apple’s App Store in a record 67 territories worldwide, including the US and UK, as of October 2010. Released by publisher Chillingo on December 10 2009, sales of Angry Birds are now in excess of 6.5 million copies.
· Fastest-Selling iPhone/iPod Strategy Game – Plants vs. Zombies (PopCap, 2010): With more than 300,000 paid downloads in its first nine days on sale in February 2010, PopCap’s Plants vs. Zombies for the iPhone and iPod Touch is the highest-grossing strategy game launch in the history of Apple’s App Store. Despite retailing at a pocket-money price of just $2.99, the tower defense title generated a cool $1 million for PopCap in a little more than a week.
· Most Popular iPhone Game Series – Tap Tap Revenge (Tapulous, 2008): The Tap Tap Revenge series of music rhythm games is the most popular in App Store history, having been downloaded more than 15 million times since the first game in the series was released in July 2008. Market research firm comScore reports that the games have been installed by 32% of all iPhone/iPad users. Tap Tap Revenge 3, which was released in October 2009, hit #1 in the App Store in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Singapore and Netherlands.
· First Text Adventure Engine for iPhone – Frotz (Craig Smith, 2008): The precursors to modern graphic adventures, text adventures use many of the same gameplay traditions as their more aesthetically appealing progeny. The first app to allow players to experience these gaming relics on the iPhone was Frotz, release to the App Store on August 11, 2008.
· First Physics-Based Puzzle Game on iPhone – Enigmo (Pangea Software, 2008): Announced alongside the App Store at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference in 2008, the liquid storage game Enigmo demonstrates how games developers could exploit the iPhone’s multitouch screen.
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