Social gaming, a relatively new phenomenon in India, is a concept that promotes social networking via online games. Already a popular culture in many parts of the world, social gaming has seen increased popularity among the Indian community. By including local nuances into the gaming environment, most of the social games are becoming more realistic as they represent the users’ daily endeavors. These games not only help to bring the communities closer, the real-time rewards further entice users’ participation.

Over 500mn people worldwide play social games and in India alone, more than 13 million or over 50 per cent of India’s Facebook users play social games, growing at 14 per cent annually

According to a report by Ficci and KPMG, the social gaming market in India was Rs 240 crore in 2010 and is expected to touch Rs 1,430 crore by 2014.

Social gaming has a lot of scope as it appeals not only to gamers but also non-gamers who want to socialise with their friends.

Major players in the social gaming space include Ibibo, Zapak, Zynga, Yahoogames, PlayUp (Recently announced its India launch) and Miniclip.

In a recent release, Ibibo announced it is already eying 50% share of India’s social gaming market by FY 14, from 30-35 per cent at present.Ninety-eight per cent of the users on Ibibo’s Social Gaming portal are from India, with about 55 per cent of the users from tier II and tier III cities.

In the next two to three years, Ibibo expects the users from these cities to increase to 70-80 per cent.

Zapak recently launched Cricville, a social cricket game on Facebook. This is Zapak’s second social game, the first being Zapak Tambola.

With Social media growing at a fast pace, Social Gaming in India to grow a an amazing pace in coming years.

Nokia has updated its famous Maps application for Symbian and Lumia Windows Phone devices with live traffic update service, making it a highly useful tool for its users.This service is currently available in Delhi & Mumbai with 1,500 kms of road coverage.

The service would be available on select Nokia smartphones like Nokia N8, Nokia 700, Nokia 701, Nokia E6, Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710. It can be accessed through ‘Nokia Drive’ on a Symbian device and ‘Nokia Maps’ on Windows devices.

Google recently introduced the same service by updating the Google Maps application. Similar to Google, Nokia tracks traffic by gathering information from other Nokia users who are also using location services on their phone at any given time.

Norton revealed in their recent survey that an average Indian netizen spend 8 hours online every day. Time spent on Facebook is used to play social games and that is set to grow higher.

Indian Gaming industry:  INR 10 Billion
Mobile and Online Gaming : INR 4.2 Billion
Console Market : INR 5.2 Billion

An Edelweiss report projects that the mobile and online gaming sector will grow six fold to INR 24 billion by 2015.

Smartphone and tablet usage is slowly but surely gaining ground in India. Internet connectivity is improving as well and once the 3G network stabilizes in India, and 4G is launched, the online gaming industry will get a further boost. Revenue generated from mobile gaming has doubled in the last two years. India’s leading Online gaming portals like Zapak.com, Indiagames.com and Ibibo.com have great chances to grow, with heightened interest among consumers.

Source : Yourstory

iBuildApp is an automated mobile app creation and publishing Platform-as-a-Service. The platform allows any business, group or individual to create and publish a native or a web app for a smartphone or a tablet (currently supporting HTML, iOS and Android) in minutes. The interface is template-based with widgets to add location (maps), contact us, coupons, video, audio, pictures, RSS, Twitter, Facebook and more.

Since launching in 2010, 100,000 businesses created 130,000 mobile apps using iBuildApp’s patent pending app creation and publishing PaaS. These apps have been downloaded over 10 million times.

New API for mobile app building services facilitates development of apps that can access iBuildApp services remotely without logging into an account.

• The API allows developers to create, retrieve, update or delete content such as photos, news, or events
• If you’re already using a content management system to update your website or database, now you can push your content directly to your mobile app
• The API Web Service project is designed to encourage easy app management and wide adoption by developers.
• Since launching in 2010, 100,000 businesses created 130,000 mobile apps using iBuildApp’s patent pending app creation and publishing PaaS. These apps have been downloaded over 10 million times.

India’s leading Cinema owners PVR Cinemas have launched a Blackberry app for PVR fans to have quick access to info on the latest movies running in all the PVR Cinemas across India. Users can watch movie trailers, movie info and book tickets on their Blackberry for free. Movie tickets can be booked by paying through their credit card in a secured environment. This application allows the patrons to hold their tickets and pay later at the box office.

Users can also keep a track of their booking history and also receive information on discount offers & deals. They can also pre book their tickets much before the release of the movie.

Link to the PVR Blackberry App

A new technical market research report released by GLOBAL MARKETS FOR TELEMEDICINE TECHNOLOGIES from BCC Research projected the global telehome and telehospital market is be valued at $11.6 billion in 2011 and is expected to increase to $27.3 billion in 2016, a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.6%.

The telehospitals and clinics segment accounted for $8 billion in 2011 and is expected to increase at a CAGR of 16.8% to reach nearly $17.6 billion in 2016.

The telehome segment accounted for $3.5 billion in 2011 and is expected to increase at a CAGR of 22.5% to reach $9.7 billion in 2016.

In addition the telemedicine market is segmented into technology (hardware, software, telecom, network) and service segments. The telemedicine technology market is expected to grow from $3.8 billion in 2010 to $4.6 billion in 2011 and $11.3 billion in 2016, with a CAGR of 19.8% over the next five years. The telemedicine service market is expected to grow from $5.9 billion in 2010 to $7 billion in 2011 and nearly $16 billion in 2016, mainly driven by growth in the telehospital service market.

There has been a global focus on the use of telemedicine as a tool to cut down healthcare costs and bring about mammoth savings.

Rovio’s Angry Birds Space has had a solid takeoff with 10 million downloads since its release on Thursday, according to the company.

The company, which disclosed the figure in its Twitter feed Monday morning, didn’t say how the release compares with previous title launches. However, according to reports, Rovio’s last major Angry Birds release, Angry Birds Rio, hit 10 million downloads in 10 days, more than three times as long.

The latest game was released for various formats, including for the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android devices, as well as the Mac and PC. The company didn’t release a Windows Phone version, though it plans to, according to Rovio CEO Mikael Hed.

The new version brings several important changes, most importantly gravity, which will allow players to use nearby planets to perform trick shots on unsuspecting pigs.

The game has 60 levels, with more content available through in-app purchases (only in the iOS version for now). The game includes hidden goodies and secret levels, and Rovio promises regular free updates for the future.

You can get the iPhone version here. The iPad version is available here, and the Android version is available over at Google Play.

Finally, the Mac version is available in the Mac App Store, while the PC version is available directly from Rovio.

Eros International Media has launched the beta version of an online video streaming service Eros Now which will provide access to Eros’ Bollywood film library as well as music videos, audio tracks and original programming.

Both a premium and standard service will be offered through its subscription, with all movies offers through ‘Eros Now Premium’. All other content will be free to access, and will be subsidised through advertising.

CultureLabel.com, has created an infographic covering how the world uses mobile.

Saavn-The music streaming service now has 9.3 million users worldwide, and adds another 125,000 new users per month-five times as many as this time last year.

Like Spotify, Saavn lets users create, play, and share playlists. Pandora-like, it also hosts radio stations. In app form and on the web, Saavn is prettier than competitors Gaana or Raaga and more legal than hindimirchi or musicindiaonline. Saavn says it has licensed rights to the “most comprehensive catalogue of Bollywood, Indian and regional South Asian music anywhere,” from 200 providers in 22 languages.

As Saavn’s newest numbers show, it has seen some promising growth this last year. Saavn now has 9.3 million users worldwide, and adds another 125,000 new users per month-five times as many as this time last year. (That’s a 25% jump in subscriptions overall.) Two million members connect via Facebook, where Saavn content is published every five seconds. Facebook users have made 1 billion Facebook impressions overall. Two million mobile users have downloaded the Saavn app, and every 10 seconds someone somewhere downloads another, all contributing to 1 million daily streams. Considering it is finding new ways to give people free access to the already explosively popular Bollywood music industry, those numbers are likely to get bigger.

Saavn has two clear strengths. First there’s that massive that trove of legally acquired high-quality streaming content, which Saavn says represents 99% of Bollywood music anywhere. Second, there’s Saavn’s custom-designed intelligent search algorithm.

India accounts for 58% of traffic overall, 68% of their Android users, and 27% of their iPhone users.

Saavn has other serious plans and partnerships with device makers and operating systems, in addition to its existing Facebook partnership, which will help grow in the country, and its Chrome and Android apps. There’s apps in the pipeline for Symbian, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile.

Saavn is partnering with device makers like HTC and Huawei to have it pre-installed on devices readied for sale in India. Responding to customer requests, they are also planning to launch a paid subscription service, which will allow subscribers to download tracks onto their phones and listen to content offline.

Facebook App : The Facebook App Can be Installed from this link