EA PopCap Games announced today that it’s launching both a new Bejeweled adaptation and a freemium version of its Facebook game, Bejeweled Blitz, on iPhone and iPod Touch. Bejeweled 2, which is currently available on both devices, will be retired.

The move is part of a as part of a new strategic direction for the franchise on mobile. As far as we can tell from the language contained in the press release, this strategy is based on making “expandable, evergreen game experiences suited to every gaming taste and budget” available on mobile devices. The new Bejeweled game for iOS is available as a 99 cent download, while the freemium Bejeweled Blitz can be downloaded for free with microtransactions available in-game to boost scores.

On Facebook, Bejeweled Blitz went through several iterations and feature sets in the last year to convert the classic match-3 game into a social network experience. The primary feature that makes the game social is the leaderboard, where friends’ weekly scores are charted. Power-up items and extra lives for additional gameplay are the main monetization features. Over the summer, Bejeweled Blitz served as a launch title for Google+’s competing games platform. According to our AppData traffic tracking service, Bejeweled Blitz currently enjoys 8.6 million monthly active users and 2.7 million daily active users on Facebook alone.

Bejeweled Blitz for iOS features nearly identical gameplay to the Facebook original, with tweaks to the user interface and retina display support. The new Bejeweled for iOS features:

◊ New high-res graphics and retina display support

◊ 3 game modes: Classic, Zen (featuring 6 ambient sound tracks and 6 mantras) and Diamond Mine

◊ In-game leaderboards to track personal high scores

◊ User profiles with gameplay statistics and 30 PopCap icons to personalize the experience

◊ 7 achievement badges with 4 levels each (bronze, silver, gold, platinum), plus 3 elite badges

◊ A player ranking system

This story originally appeared on our sister site, Inside Social Games.

Survey Finds iOS is Only Profitable for a Minority of Developers – According to a survey conducted by independent Canadian developer Streaming Colour Studios, 20% of iOS developers take home 97% of all revenue generated on the platform. This isn’t really surprising given the economics of most gaming markets. However, keep in mind that the survey probably excludes responses of the highest-grossing developers who may be venture-backed and can’t disclose sensitive information like monthly revenues. In terms of lifetime revenue, while 25% of iOS developers have seen more than $30,000 from their apps, the money is very concentrated – the top 1% of developers currently account for 30% of all revenue generated by the App store.

Microsoft’s Mango Arrives, Brings Extras – The highly anticipated OS update Windows Phone 7.5 – aka Mango, began a gradual roll-out this week. The updated included a variety of new features that were previously announced, and two that weren’t – the ability to tether internet from a WP7 device to up to five other devices and a web-based marketplace that allows users to browse apps on a computer and remotely install them on a WP7 phone.

Android Phones now Twice as Popular as iPhones, But iPhone 5 is Hotly Anticipated –
The competition between Android and iOS continues to heat up, making BlackBerry and Windows Phones look increasingly like also-rans in the smartphone market. According to a new report from Nielsen, over the last three months more than half of smartphone buyers have chosen Android, rather than iOS. The numbers broke down to 56% Android, 28% iPhone, 9% BlackBerry and 6% other (including Windows Phone 7). However, as TechCrunch notes, with a new iPhone imminent, the numbers could be inaccurate. That conclusion seems to be backed up by the results of a study conducted by InMobi that found up to 41% of mobile consumers may purchase an iPhone 5. RIM fared particularly badly in the survey; up to 52% of BlackBerry users in North America are considering switching to the iPhone 5.

Gameloft Offerings Coming to Mysterious Sony Tablets – French developer Gameloft has signed a deal to bring optimized ports of some of their most popular games to an upcoming Sony tablet line.  Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD, N.O.V.A. 2 – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance HD, Real Soccer 2011 HD, Spider-Man: Total Mayhem HD, and Green Farm HD will all be directly accessible on devices referred to as “Sony Tablet P” and “Sony Tablet S” by in a press release quoting Gameloft’s senior vice president of publishing, Gonzague de Vallois.

Microsoft & Samsung Reach Android Patent Detente – Microsoft and Samsung have agreed to halt legal battles over the use of Microsoft’s patents in Samsung’s Android devices. Under the terms of the new agreement, Samsung will now pay Microsoft a royalty fee for every Android phone and tablet it produces. Microsoft has also set up deals with HTC, Acer, ViewSonic, Velocity Micro and Winstron to license its portfolio of patents. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates that Microsoft will earn about $444 million in licensing revenue from such deals.

[Rumor] Ice Cream Sandwich to Debut on October 11th? – Samsung has announced a press event for October 11th, and industry watchers are betting that the event will see the unveiling of Samsung’s new Nexus Prime smartphone and the next Android OS update, Ice Cream Sandwich. Video and photos of Ice Cream Sandwich have already leaked online, hinting that the update will bring interface improvements for notifications and the camera, as well as a slightly redesigned color scheme.

Halfbrick Wants 70 million More Chinese Downloads in Six Months – Fruit Ninja is already a big success for its developer Halfbrick; the game has been downloaded more than 66 million times and has been ported from iOS to Android, Windows Phone 7 and even Kinect, but the Australian developer is looking to China for continued growth. According to Halfbrick’s CEO Shainiel Deo, almost of third of Fruit Ninja’s downloads have come from Chinese users. In a speech at Beijing’s Mobitalk conference, Deo revealed that Halfbrick has formed a partnership with Chinese developer iDreamSky to develop free, localized versions of the game to combat piracy and allow Halfbrick to make money from in game ads and micro transactions.

Aquaria Coming to iPad – Indie developer Bit Blot is bringing its highly regarded game Aquaria to the iPad. The game, originally released in 2007 for PC, Aquaria is a 2-D action and adventure game set in a mysterious underwater world. The game was highly praised upon its release for its non-linear gameplay and impressive atmosphere, and won the grand prize at the Independent Games Festival in 2007.

Lara Croft is Coming to Android, But Only on the Xperia PLAY – Hit mobile game Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is coming to Android in November, but there’s a catch – only on the Xperia PLAY. This week Sony Ericsson announced a partnership with Square Enix that will see several of the developer’s hits come to the Xperia PLAY in the coming months.

Foursquare Revamps Home Checkins to Keep Users Safer – While nobody would ever say they don’t have any concern for their own privacy, according to Foursquare, a significant portion of its users love that they have the ability to check into their own homes. To address the demand, but to improve privacy and safety, the location based service announced that as of September 29th:

• Only the person who creates a ‘home’ and their friends can see the address on the venue page.
• On a home’s venue page, only those same people can see the map pin. Everyone else will see a map randomly centered somewhere near the address, with the zoom pulled out a bit.
• The same rules apply to links shared on Facebook or Twitter.

Users can now also report locations as a home, setting them to be listed as private venues or removing them from the service all together. More details can be found on the Fourquare blog.

[Launch] Minecraft Now Available for More Android Devices – Minecraft, the mega-hit open-world exploration and crafting game from Swedish developer Mojang was released into the open Android market this week, much to the delight of the Android community.  Minecraft Pocket Edition was originally an exclusive title on Sony Ericsson’s Xperia PLAY. According to a video Mojang’s YouTube account, an iOS version of the game is also in development.

[Launch] Firebrand Branch Crawfish Games Tries Social and Mobile with Cutesy and Creepy – New studio Crawfish Games has finished setting up shop and is releasing its first two games, Cutesy and Creepy for iOS. Cutesy is available now and Creepy will be released on October 5th.  The games are targeted specifically at children 5 or older. By solving puzzles, players will be able to collect and share stickers with their friends. Crawfish games was founded as a way for parent company Firebrand Games (a UK developer who specializes in racing games for Nintendo consoles) to expand into the mobile, casual and online game marketplaces.

[Launch] Q&A Service Quora Releases iPhone App – Popular question-and-answer service Quora released a free iOS app this week for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The new app lets users to search for nearby queries, receive push notifications, and “shuffle” questions.

[Launch] Yahoo Unveils Free Flickr App for Android – Flickr users with Android phones finally have access to an official app. The new app allows users to browse albums, take photos, share them, and apply image editing and effects and filters, a direct challenge to services like Instagram and Hipstamatic that have seen their growth from mobile applications. Unlike on iOS, where Instagram has been one of the top 10 downloaded applications in the last year, Android is open territory given that PicPlz forfeited the camera space a few months ago. According to its page on the Android Market, the free app is already doing well seeing more than 50,000 downloads since its launch. Flickr has had an official iPhone app since 2009.

This week the top paid iOS charts showed a good mix between games and utilities, with entries from developers as diverse as EA Mobile, Miniclip, Bright AI and Lucky Clan all making strong debuts. On the iPad charts, older utilities from niche developers like Cocoa Box, Skyfire and Loytr all saw movement up the charts thanks to limited time sales, however the clear winner this week was Disney Interactive. Its new game Where’s My Water premiered to a flurry of press last Thursday and turned in into a fast success, claiming the top spot on the iPhone and iPad charts.

New Titles with the Top iPhone Paid Apps List:

Where’s My Water? – Swampy the Alligator is king of iOS this week; the #1 paid app on both is Where’s My Water, the new game from Disney Interactive.  A physics based puzzle game, players must direct jets of water through the sewers, carving paths through dirt and around obstacles like algae, traps and even toxic ooze, all so the hero of the game, cleanliness obsessed Swampy the Alligator, can take a bath. Where’s my water was released on September 22nd and costs $0.99.

My Secret Folder – The #10 app is a new utility, My Secret Folder. Launched last month and updated on September 14th, the app has a simple premise — if you have some photos and videos you don’t want prying eyes to see, you finally have a place to put them. The app works simply — when you set it up, you assign a 4 digit passcode, and then import any photos and videos you’d rather keep to yourself. Once photos are in the app, users can create folders and slideshows, export them from the phone and even email them. The app’s icon is a clever decoy — it looks like a generic folder and if anyone is curious and tries to open it, the app uses badge alerts to notify users how many unauthorized access attempts there have been. My Secret folder is $0.99 and was developed by UK developer Bright AI Ltd.

Monster Island – The newest game from prolific British developer Miniclip is Monster Island, the #12 game this week. In the game, players must save Monster Island from an invading gang of thugs by flinging an arsenal of mini-monster bombs at them. Players unlock five different bombs, each with their own unique abilities as they progress through 200 levels of puzzles. The app is $0.99, but it is also supported by in-app purchases like solutions and level skip packages.

The Sims Medieval - EA Mobile’s latest addition to their incredibly popular Sims franchise is the Sims Medieval. Released on September 22nd, The Sims Medieval is an iPhone only game that adds castles, jesters, knights, quests, sword fighting, lords and ladies, vampires to the addictive Sims formula.  The Sims Medieval costs $4.99 and is currently the #23 paid app for iPhone.

Top Truck – Moving down to #46 is Top Truck, monster truck racing game with an interesting twist — players don’t just race to the finish, they have to do it in style, finding hidden paths, crushing cars, houses, and terrain to keep the audience entertained and the crowdometer full. The game costs $0.99, but has extra vehicle packages to unlock for $0.99 and $1.99. Top Truck was released on September 15th by UK developer Ace Viral.

New Titles with the Top iPad Paid Apps List:

Penultimate – First up on the iPad paid charts this week is #6 ranked Penultimate, an older app which has seen a boost of popularity after going on sale for $1.99 and upgrading to version 3.1 on September 12th. A handwriting/productivity app, Penultimate allows users to write on their iPad the same way they would on paper. Users can doodle using a variety of different ink colors, import images, choose whether they’re left or right handed, export single pages or entire notebooks and share them via email or through iTunes File Sharing. Penultimate was developed by San Francisco based studio Cocoa Box Design.

Top Camera for iPad – photo/video app with HDR, slow shutter, folders and editor – The #21 app is newly released Top Camera for iPad. Formerly an iPhone only title, Top Camera is a full-featured app that gives users the ability to get creative with their iPad’s camera, adding video recordings, timed shots, HDR, a photo editor, filters and effects, borders, GPS tracking, folders, export options and more. Designed by photographer David Scott Leibowitz and developed by small Polish developer Lucky Clan, Top Camera is currently on sale for $0.99.

MyPad+ – for Facebook and Twitter – One of most popular unofficial Facebook/Twitter apps for iPad, with over 1.1 million DAU, MyPad+ has risen up the top paid charts to the #14 position thanks to a 50% off sale that’s knocked the price to $0.99. Updated on September 13th by developer Loytr to support push notifications, MyPad+ allows users to view birthday and event calendars, chat, update Twitter and play Facebook games, all from one app. MyPad+ and many other apps like it exist because there is still no official Facebook app for iPad. Fortunately for MyPad+, their position seems secure: news broke on September 26th that engineer Jeff Verkoeyen had left Facebook due to frustrations that his iPad app “may never be released.” Update: Mashable is reporting that the Facebook app for iPad will be unveiled on October 4th at the iPhone 5 launch.

Another World – 20th Anniversary – The classic 90s adventure game is back again on iOS, remade with optional HD graphics, new difficulty modes and a remastered soundtrack. Originally released in 1991 for the Amiga, Another World was a huge hit in its day, selling over a million copies and being ported to over a dozen platforms (including the Super Nintendo). The game follows Lester Knight Chaykin, a physicist who is accidentally transported to another world where he must escape his alien captors. Originally developed independently by French developer Eric Chahi (currently at Ubisoft), Another World was brought to iOS by French/US developer/publisher BulkyPix. Another World costs $4.99 and is currently the #24 top paid app for iPad.

Skyfire Web Browser for iPad - While there may be quite a few browsers available for the iPad, the #29 app Skyfire sets itself apart by bringing Flash video to the mobile browsing experience, supporting more than 200,000 sites that use Flash to encode their video content. Skyfire also includes features like Google Reader, Twitter and Facebook integration, private browsing and easy webpage sharing through Facebook, Twitter, email, Tumblr and Instapaper, but what it doesn’t do it allow users to play Flash games or use Flash apps. The app costs $4.99 due to a football season sale, and was developed by California based Skyfire Labs, who have been in our news before for their VideoQ program, an on-demand Flash video converter for iOS.

Entertainment and past paid apps are rising up the top iOS charts today. Both Booyah and Gameloft have made one of their titles free-to-play, and while the latter’s is only temporary, both moves have pushed the games to the top of the free iPhone charts. On iPad, however, television is moving to the top with apps for NBC, TNT, and TBS breaching the top ten.

New Titles Within Top iPhone Free Apps List

Asphalt 6: Adrenaline – The new #1 free iPhone app is also #1 on iPad: Asphalt 6: Adrenaline. Though it hasn’t been updated since July 20th, the racing game from international publisher and developer Gameloft has risen dramatically due to being made free for an undisclosed amount of time. The game features a multitude of world-class cars (e.g. Aston Martin) for players to race on tracks from around the world. A former top paid app, the monetization of the game is now based around in-app purchases for virtual currency and items.

Early Bird — Next up is the game of Early Bird. Ranked #2, this app was also once a top paid application as well. It is a puzzle game in which players try to guide a bluebird to its worm-meal using simple finger swipes. That in mind, the challenge is to work their way past a variety of obstacles, pitfalls, and moving platforms. Early Bird’s growth is also partially attributed to a September 13th update that added in 24 new levels, and a new in-app purchase ($0.99) for “The Phoenix,” which is meant to help pass levels in which the player is stuck and resembles Angry Birds’ Mighty Eagle virtual good. Early Bird is developed by California’s Booyah, a social and mobile games developer founded in 2008, and whose titles include MyTown, DJ Rivals, and Nightclub City.

Tangled — Tangled is a puzzle game that is also noted to be free for a limited time (usually costing $0.99). The game features several orbs connected by lines that players must untangle so that the lines do not cross. Also aiding in its growth is a September 13th update that added in three new puzzle packs of varying difficulties. This is on top of the game’s already existing 30 puzzles. Though it is normally a paid application, Tangled also hosts several in-app purchases for new puzzles and level unlocks. Its developer is credited as Billy Lavoie, whose other iOS applications include Tangled 2 and Tangled 2: Doodle. Tangled is currently #3 on the top free iPhone apps list.

Talking Larry the Bird — Outfit7 may have lost its chief executive recently, but the mobile developer of talking animal apps has seen several million downloads during his time as CEO, and those numbers continue to climb with the #4 free iPhone app, Talking Larry the Bird. Talking Larry the Bird is one of those interactive virtual avatar applications. Like other Outfit7 apps, users can poke, talk, or record video with Larry. Additionally, Larry the Bird comes with a digital piano keyboard which can be played to prompt him to whistle along in key. Talking Larry the Bird is one of Outfit7′s older titles, however, having been updated last November. That said, the growth is due to the application being made free for a limited time. It is also ranked #8 on iPad.

Line Runner – Robert Szeleney is credited to several top free “line-style” games on iPhone. The most recent of these to rise is the August 1st-updated game of Line Runner. Featured on FreeAppADay, Line Runner is a simple challenge of running as far as one can, jumping over or rolling under ever increasing numbers of obstacles without getting hit. The game also adds extra challenge via OpenFeint leaderboards. Though it is free, the game monetizes through an in-app purchase for a little stick figure blood at $0.99. As for Szeleney himself, he appears to be part of Austrian company, Djinnworks. Line Runner is currently sitting at #5 on the top free iPhone apps list.

New Titles Within Top iPad Free Apps List

NBC – Media and entertainment giant NBC Universal is the creator of today’s #2 free iPad app, NBC. A television oriented application, it allows users to watch full episodes of NBC programming from their iPad device, a feature added in the recent September 8th update. Additionally, NBC allows for users to browse video highlights and photos from their favorite shows, along with mini-games, trivia, schedules, and the ability to interact with other fans.

Six Towers HD – Moving back into the realm of games comes Six Towers HD. Ranked at #3 on the top free iPad apps list, the game was only recently released on September 10th. A puzzle game with a simple concept, players must organize a series of eight columns into six. Each brick in the column is numbered and colored, thus the final six columns must be in ascending order and of the same color. However, bricks can only be placed in empty slots or atop  another brick that is sequentially adjacent (e.g. a “2″ can only be put atop a “1″ or “3″). Once again, the credited developer is the enigmatic AlphaWeb Plus LLP, but the game is linked to a Russian games portal called Bashni.

TNT for iPad — The television network of TNT (of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., A Time Warner Company)  is stepping into the top free iPad app charts as well with its #5 application, TNT for iPad. Released only September 8th, the entertainment title has risen quickly. As one would expect, TNT for iPad provides users with mobile access to any of their preferred TNT programs (and movies). It also includes episode guides, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage. As an added bonus, the application also incorporates the ability to set schedule reminders for upcoming shows. The app also hosts social integration via networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

TBS for iPad — Coming in at #6 is, for the third time today, more television. This time it is the “very funny” network of TBS who has recently launched (September 8th) TBS for iPad. Like the previous two television applications, TBS for iPad offers its users full access to television programming from the network. That said, access is only granted after authenticating one’s cable or satellite provider. Beyond the TBS comedies, however, users can also view clips, episode guides, more behind-the-scenes video, and also set schedule reminders. TBS is also part of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., A Time Warner Company.

Dolphin Browser HD — The last highlight of the day, sitting at #8, is also a feature from FreeAppADay, Dolphin Browser HD. Last updated September 12th, the app is a mobile web browser designed around touch controls. Dolphin also supports a sidebar for bookmarks, tabbed browsing, and word finds. The developer behind Dolphin Browser is credited as MoboTap, a mobile technology company whose focus is around improving mobile web experiences.  Additionally, the San Francisco-based company recently raised $10 million in Series A funding.

Pocket Gems, a Sequoia Capital-backed gaming company that made its name on casual sim titles with lots of animals, has put a third app into the U.S.’s top-grossing 15 this week with the launch of Tap Petshop. (The company had three in the top 10 earlier, but both Tap Zoo and Tap Petshop have slipped a little this morning.)

Android versions of Pocket Gems’ apps will be coming soon, along with several brand-new titles before the end of the year.

“Our goal is be the leader in mobile entertainment,” said Ben Liu, who came on as Pocket Gems’ chief operating officer from Playdom. He added that the company will broaden out beyond Tamagotchi-like, animal care-taking games too. “We’re working on new kinds of game mechanics and genres which will come out in the next couple of months. It’s safe to assume we’ll have a bunch of releases soon.”

The company’s staffed up from around 10 people at the start of the year to more than 60 now, so it certainly has the capacity to step up the pace. Tap Petshop is Pocket Gems’ second launch this year after Tap Pet Hotel.

Considering that iOS titles with a top 15 ranking in the platform’s biggest markets often make more than $1 million a month, and north of $3 million at the very highest echelons, all three apps represent a fair amount of revenue for the company. (Unfortunately though, Liu was not really specific about anything concerning revenue.)

That said, given that Pocket Gems already had two top-grossing titles, it’s not surprising that the company has the marketing muscle to push a third game to the top. The company said last month that it’s seen 40 million downloads.

Liu said that Pocket Gems launched Tap Petshop using only organic channels at first. The company cross-promoted Tap Petshop in its existing games and sent e-mails to users. The company only recently turned to paid user acquisition channels to keep the title up there.

Pocket Gems’ prominence on the top-grossing charts is a reflection of how the iOS platform is seeing consolidation around a few mobile-social gaming companies that either moved early or spent considerably to build distribution power. Developers among the platform’s top grossing 50 haven’t changed all that much this year. Funzio and Crowdstar are relatively new to iOS’ top grossing list, but the rest are mostly familiar faces like Rovio, Storm8, Zynga, Addmired, NimbleBit, Capcom’s Beeline Interactive and Siberia’s Kamagames.

Earlier today, we reported that Apple may have changed the ranking algorithm for the iOS app store, favoring active usage in addition to downloads. A number of the bigger pay-per-install networks, which help developers break into the top of the charts through buying downloads, noticed strange shifts in the rankings last week that seemed to favor older apps with large active user bases like Netflix and Pandora.

While Apple hasn’t publicly confirmed the changes, the big beneficiary has been Facebook, which scaled the charts to number #1 after having mostly lingered between #10 and #20 for the last 16 months. There isn’t anything that Facebook appears to have done to independently boost its app in the last week. The company did release its first update in five months on April 4. But that was about a week and half before its rise.

Facebook’s iPhone app has been adding monthly active users at a clip of just over 600,000 users a week. It almost certainly has the largest daily active user base of any third-party app on the iOS platform with 39.5 million users opening it daily, according to AppData. Just for a frame of reference: if Apple is getting close to having cumulatively sold 200 million iOS devices as analysts estimate, the app gets opened on at least one out of every five iOS devices every day. And that’s not accounting for all the devices that are retired as users upgrade to new models.

Facebook for iPhone Statistics

While adding 600,000 users a week sounds like a lot, it’s actually small compared to what we’ve heard top-ranked free apps would pull in before the algorithm changes. The very top three places often represent more than 300,000 downloads a day while almost all of the top 10 slots usually do at least 100,000 a day, according to conversations we’ve had with developers who have held those ranks.

Facebook is a remarkably sticky app with roughly 55 percent of its monthly active users opening up the app every day. All of this goes to suggest that Apple is favoring active usage more relative to downloads.

Here are some additional growth charts, showing a steady, linear trajectory for the app. Like we said above, we can’t identify any growth spikes on Facebook’s side, so it does appear to be a change on Apple’s side. Overall, the extra visibility will likely help convince users who haven’t already downloaded the app to install it. We’ll be watching AppData to see if the changes produce any measurable bump in the number of monthly actives the app is adding.

Friendly, the unofficial Facebook tablet app that’s filled the void left by the company’s decision to hold off on launching a native iPad app, released a host of new features today including chat, camera support and photo effects.

We checked Friendly’s numbers on AppData this morning to go with this story and discovered that the app currently has just over 911,000 daily active users — and seems to be adding them at a clip of roughly 50,000 new daily actives per week.

That’s not downloads. That’s nearly a million daily actives. On a tablet.

If Apple shipped 14.8 million iPads through the end of last year, plus another estimated 6 million (according to Asymco’s Horace Dediu, who has beaten every other Apple analyst for the last four quarters) through the end of the March, that implies that about one out of every 20 to 25 iPad users opens Friendly every day. The app also has slightly more than 3 million monthly active users.

Anyway, the update today adds support for the iPad’s new front- and back-facing cameras and a profile picture editor that lets users adjust and crop their pictures. There are also some basic filters to add effects to photos. It also has birthday notifications and supports Facebook chat. Lastly, it adds newsfeed sharing, which means that iPad users can share  photos, links and videos directly from their live newsfeed.

Facebook has so far held off on releasing a native app, allowing a raft of third-party developers to build their own versions. Friendly for iPad, made by a bootstrapped company Oecoway, is by far the largest, but there are others like Facepad and Touch HD.

Oecoway co-founder Cyril Moutran recognizes the fundamental problem with building a third-party Facebook client — which is that at some point Facebook might come to market — likely with an HTML5 version optimized for tablets. In the meantime, getting to 1 million DAU on a tablet is not a bad ride.

A number of mobile-related bits of funding news came up this morning, so we put them together in a round-up. Like we’re seeing on the mobile gaming side, venture financing for consumer mobile communication and sharing apps is becoming expensive. Flipboard, for one, is looking for a $200 million valuation despite the fact that it hasn’t turned on revenue yet.

Yobongo: Color us skeptical on this one. But Yobongo, an iOS chat app that connects strangers in local areas, raised $1.35 million from investors including Mitch Kapor, Dave Morin, Kevin Rose, Gary Vaynerchuk, Karl Jacob, Bill Roux and Shervin Pishevar. True Ventures and Freestyle Capital also came in.

Although the company told The Wall Street Journal that “tens of thousands” of people have downloaded the app and that five thousand have come back to it in the last week, its daily active use, as reflected on Facebook, has been steadily declining to less than 20 on AppData, our data service tracking the top web and mobile applications that integrate with Facebook. Yobongo has a very prominent Facebook integration with single sign-on visibly placed on the homescreen, so Facebook should probably be reflective of one-tenth to one-third of total active usage. Its iOS ranking has been dipping too; it’s at 343 in the social networking category, down from 142 a week ago. Logging into the app feels a bit bare with only between two and 10 people around, but this appears to be by design because Yobongo parcels out users to different chat rooms.

Flipboard: This rumored funding round is pricey, but at least the product has serious traction. AllThingsD reported that this social magazine for the iPad is close to completing a round at a $200 million valuation. Flipboard is still pre-revenue but it is consistently the top 2nd or 3rd news app and has been hovering between #10 and #30 on the overall iPad ranking. On Facebook, we can see 247,929 daily active users and 746,528 monthly actives via AppData — both of which are very impressive numbers for a mobile app on the Facebook platform. (The spike on the chart coincides with a recent update that brought social search, the ability to search across a user’s social networks and blogs.)

If Flipboard goes through with the round, it will need to deliver a lucrative brand advertising product for tablets or get acquired by a deep-pocketed media company desperate to make it on mobile devices.

Offline Labs: While this San Francisco startup made up of former Slide employees has yet to launch, we hear its product will have a mobile component. Called Sōsh, the product will have exclusive local deals and events and will be about changing the way people share experiences and things to do. Events is a notoriously difficult space for online consumer startups to build a lucrative business, but Sequoia Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Polaris Ventures, General Catalyst Partners along with Keith Rabois and Naval Ravikant have invested.

The field of mobile and social apps looking to breakout this week at SXSW was quite crowded. But it looks like almost everyone got a bump in active usage and downloads. Personally, I got pulled into eight GroupMe groups and found myself drifting back to Foursquare from Facebook Places. So New York — not Silicon Valley — won SXSW for me.

To get a more accurate picture of how SXSW impacted different apps, we pulled data on Facebook usage from AppData and looked at iOS app store rankings through AppAnnie and install numbers on Android Marketplace. Unlike many of the mobile games we cover, apps like Foursquare and Instagram are inherently social. They almost always have a strong Facebook integration so these numbers are a decent — if imperfect — proxy for growth.

When looking at the charts below, there are a few things to keep in mind. For some apps like Ditto, where is the no alternative to logging in with Facebook, these numbers actually measure total usage. But for others like Instagram, which only uses Facebook to find new friends, these numbers account for probably less than half of the apps’ total usage. How many people choose to log in with Facebook depends on how well the integration is designed.

The iOS app store rankings are based on pure downloads while Android shows installations (a better metric since it doesn’t count apps that have been downloaded and then later deleted). Android will show a range of installations (e.g. 10,000 to 50,000 or 10 million to 50 million), but not an exact number.

So this is an imperfect way of looking at app usage, but it’s better than reading press releases about downloads or registered users.

Group Messaging

Recently acquired by Facebook, Beluga still made a strong showing at SXSW, grabbing more than 16 thousand monthly active Facebook users during the past week. It also held its iOS app store ranking higher than much-hyped GroupMe through out the entire interactive part of the conference. While Facebook will keep the app alive, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Facebook launch its own standalone group messaging app in the next six months.

Daily active users on Facebook: 7,583 (+1,703 last 7 days)
Monthly active users on Facebook: 79,907 (+16,062 last 7 days)
Installs on Android Marketplace: Between 100,000 and 500,000

Ironically, we can’t really track the app that I seemed to be most dependent on at SXSW. Because it uses phone numbers and Twilio’s API to seed its userbase, it is difficult to get a handle on GroupMe’s daily and monthly active usage. GroupMe has a Facebook integration, but it’s buried three clicks into the app so that metric isn’t going to be very accurate.

Monthly active users on Facebook: 4,395
Installs in Android Marketplace: Between 10,000 and 50,000

Kik Messenger’s aggressive user acquisition techniques using the phone’s address book helped trigger its fast growth. It recently pulled together an $8 million round involving Union Square Ventures. It didn’t have too much of a SXSW presence and declined a little in app store rankings this week against more visible competitors like Beluga.

Installs in Android Marketplace: Between 1 million and 5 million

Yobongo, an app that aims to jump start local conversations between strangers, will likely have a harder time attracting new users compared to apps that leverage real friendships. And it shows. On the homepage, users can choose between logging in with Facebook or signing up through Yobongo, so it does have a stronger Facebook integration. It’s only managed to attract just under 1,500 monthly active users on the Facebook platform.

Monthly active users on Facebook: 1,484
Daily active users on Facebook: 36
Installs in Android Marketplace: No Android app

Fast Society: Another group-texting app from a three-man team out of New York’s Dog Patch Labs, this app lets users create five groups with up to 25 people in each and mixes chat, photos and location-sharing.

Installs in Android Marketplace: Between 500 and 1,000

Photo-Sharing

Despite media coverage hyping a race between Benchmark-backed Instagram and others, this really is a one-sided competition. The San Francisco-based company has more than four times as many monthly active Facebook users as Picplz and it dominates iOS’s photography category. It gained users steadily throughout SXSW after launching an update that overhauled its news feed and gave users a new tilt-shift effect to play with.

Monthly active users on Facebook: 436,209 (+25,127 last 7 days)
Daily active users on Facebook: 43,785 (+2,097 last 7 days)
Installs in Android Marketplace: No Android app

Picplz’s saving grace is that it has an Android presence, which likely makes up most of its active user base. After launching an update that lets users add borders to their images, it gained a healthy number of users on Facebook and jumped up in the iOS photography rankings noticeably.

Monthly active users on Facebook: 106,373 (+15,451 in last 7 days)
Daily active users on Facebook: 53,396 (+4,532 in last 7 days)
Installs on the Android Marketplace: Between 500,000 and 1 million

Despite a well-regarded team and funding from Kleiner Perkins, Path still appears to be struggling. Unfortunately, the Apple app store didn’t green light the new version of Path — complete with a better Facebook integration — until yesterday after the last day of SXSW Interactive. So the chart showing declining monthly active usage may start to reverse later this week. With its latest edition of the app, Path followed in the footsteps of Instagram and Picplz with lenses. It’s experimenting with in-app purchases by charging for them.

Monthly active users on Facebook: 15,361 (-2,421 in last 7 days)
Daily active users on Facebook: 597 (-67 in last 7 days)
Installs on the Android Marketplace: No Android app

Other Mobile-Social Apps

Ditto, from former Googler Jyri Engestrom, lets users share what they’d like to do in a more structured way. People can say that they’re up for dinner or a movie while friends can chime in, offering to join. It started off the week slowly but has crept up and nearly doubled to just over 10,000 monthly actives. The apps’ stickiness, as measured through daily active users, seems weaker though because Ditto! hasn’t grown that number over the last seven days.

Monthly active users on Facebook: 10,620 (+4,195 in last 7 days)
Daily active users on Facebook: 1,979 (-15 in last 7 days)
Installs on Android Marketplace: No Android app.

Foodspotting, an app for foodies who irrationally like to take photographs of what they eat, also made a decent climb up the charts this week. It broke into the top 1000 apps overall in the U.S. and rose from 30 to 18 in its category Travel. The app has a weak Facebook integration, so AppData probably grossly undercounts total usage.

Monthly active users on Facebook: 8,722 (+721 last 7 days)
Daily active users on Facebook: 321 (+49 last 7 days)
Installs on the Android Marketplace: 10,000 to 50,000 (of Foodspotting Lite)

This is a brand new app from an Austin-based team that is, in some ways, what Facebook Events could have been. The app is meant to support spontaneous get-togethers between friends. It only shows events happening in the next 24 hours that are nearby or happen to involve friends. With a launch right before SXSW, Hurricane Party picked up just over 2,000 users throughout the week. It looks promisingly sticky at the moment with a high DAU/MAU ratio.

Monthly active users on Facebook: 2,464
Daily active users on Facebook: 2,184
Installs on Android Marketplace: No Android app.

Location-Sharing Apps

The sweetheart of last year’s SXSW, Foursquare has seemed to hold its own despite the arrival Facebook’s location sharing product Places last fall. It crossed 7 million registered users just three weeks before the conference and in fact, it anecdotally seemed more widely used there than Facebook Places.

Daily active users on Facebook: 281,046 (+25,248 last 7 days)
Monthly active users on Facebook: 1,822,465 (+31,759 last 7 days)
Installs on Android Marketplace: Between 1 million and 5 million

Gowalla was the hometown rival to Foursquare and it too saw a bump in usage. But it remains far behind its East Coast rival with less than one-seventh of Foursquare’s active Facebook user base.

Daily active users on Facebook: 24,484 (-4,827 last 7 days)
Monthly active users on Facebook: 246,190 (+17,540 last 7 days)
Installs on Android Marketplace: Between 100,000 and 500,000

Apple’s iOS and Facebook are very different platforms at a fundamental level. But their moves over the past month suggest that they could clash over the next year or two in some fascinating ways.

At its core, Facebook is an identity layer that is agnostic about which device or application a user touches the platform with. iOS, in contrast, has so far existed mainly to drive sales of Apple hardware.

But both Apple and Facebook want a cut of downstream revenues from the burgeoning economies that their platforms support. Apple did this from the get-go by taking 30% of revenue from paid apps, which it extended to in-app payments and now subscriptions. Facebook did this with Credits, the currency it introduced as virtual goods blossomed into a $2.1 billion U.S. market. It anchored off the price expectations Apple set, and also used the 70% to 30% revenue split.

Both have moved to consolidate power around their in-house payment systems this year. Facebook will make Credits mandatory as the sole payment option for games by July. Apple now requires that publishers offer consumers the choice of paying through iTunes for subscriptions or in-app purchases, from which it will take a 30% cut. While consumers can still pay for subscriptions outside iTunes, Apple’s system is so seamless that most consumers will probably opt for it anyway.

So this is all well and good: Apple controls payments on iOS. Facebook controls payments on canvas games. When does it get interesting?

Multiple sources have hinted that Facebook Credits are coming for the web — perhaps as soon as next quarter. Opening up Credits to the web would extend the currency’s reach into many more gaming titles. It would also get the company into other types of digital goods such as content or music. There’s been widespread speculation about this for years.

The less discussed aspect of the move is that it would also be a back door into mobile. Facebook has been pushing game developers to use HTML5 instead of building native apps. Facebook chief technology officer Bret Taylor has also hinted that whatever tablet experience it launches may be in HTML5.

Now imagine if Facebook didn’t just launch a native iPad or Android tablet app. Imagine if it also launched a tablet-optimized HTML5 version that came complete with all of the Facebook platform’s top-performing titles from Zynga and other developers.

If it integrated Credits into HTML5 gaming titles, this would bypass payment restrictions in the app store and Android Marketplace. Much has been made of the HTML5-native debate, but many popular iOS apps have HTML5 elements in them. Oecoway’s unofficial Facebook app, Friendly for iPad, renders its core parts including the news feed in HTML5. It has just over 2 million monthly active users, according to AppData.

The interesting question is not whether developers are turning to native apps over HTML5, but why. Is it because of performance, discovery or monetization? If Facebook could solve two of those three problems with the social graph and Credits, would mobile developers come?

Supporting Credits in web apps would help Facebook hold onto its developer community as it eyes Android and iOS as alternative sources of revenue. From conversations with developers and third-party service providers, the handful of very top iOS game developers are operating on an annualized $20 to 25 million run rate right now. That’s a fraction of what Zynga makes, but is nevertheless intriguing.

Facebook is powerful enough as a destination that it could probably drive meaningful traffic to HTML5 gaming titles. About 60 percent of the company’s more than 200 million monthly mobile users access it through the web, which is more than the total number of Android devices that Gartner estimates have been shipped to date. On top of that, Facebook could always leverage its relationships with the carriers and device manufacturers to come pre-installed on handsets and tablets, along the lines of what it has done with Facebook Zero and the special HTC and INQ handsets that were unveiled last week at Mobile World Congress. It could offer carriers a cut of Credits revenue to sweeten the deal.

Meanwhile, given Apple and Facebook’s failure to come to an agreement with bringing Connect to Ping, iTunes’ social network for music, it’s hard to see iOS giving Credits an opening. So Facebook will have to go through the web at least in the long-run.

Since their inception, the iOS and Facebook platforms have presided over a shift from mostly free and advertising-supported experiences to freemium or free-to-play ones that are monetized with micropayments. Games have pioneered the way, but other industries like the media are beginning to experiment with payments too.

The question is who will provide the best payments infrastructure on mobile and the web for digital content? Apple’s iOS and Facebook have positioned themselves as ubiquitous and trusted platforms with the scale to become market-makers. Android is also emerging as the second major smartphone platform as Google fixes its payments infrastructure with in-app purchases and a subscription program OnePass. However, the company has never historically executed payments well. Amazon, with years of expertise in e-commerce and recommendations, plus ties to the developer community through web services, is very formidable too. Coming in behind these four are other players like Sony and Microsoft.

This is probably not a winner-take-all market. It may end up looking something more like Visa, Mastercard and Amex. Margins may have to come down as they compete. This will be one interesting horse-race to watch.