New Android boss Sundar Pichai gave his first interview to Wired today, revealing Google’s future plans for its Android operating system.

In March, Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, stepped down from his position as head of Android to pursue another role within Google. Pichai, who was the senior vice president of Chrome and Apps prior, was tapped as Rubin’s replacement. Pichai told Wired that the leadership change from Rubin to himself happened a couple weeks prior to Google’s official announcement.

People speculated that the move signaled an unification of Google’s two operating systems — its Android OS and Chrome OS. Pichai, who’s been at Google since 2004, reiterated to Wired that Android and Chrome will remain separate, but didn’t rule out a change in the long run.

“The picture may look different a year or two from from now, but in the short term, we have Android and we have Chrome, and we are not changing course,” he said.

Other highlights from his interview included Pichai’s excitement for alternative Android experiences via Facebook Home and Amazon Kindle Fire, Google’s positive relationship with Samsung (Pichai owns a Galaxy S4 handset) and his backing of HTML5 for app development.

For Android specifically, Pichai said payouts to developers on Google Play quadrupled in 2012. He also said Google is looking into changing its method when it comes to updating the Android OS, which is currently highly fragmented across many Android devices.

For Google’s I/O event later this week, Pichai said the conference will focus on “all kinds of things we’re doing for developers.” Keep it right here at Inside Mobile Apps for Google I/O coverage starting Wednesday.

Developers interested in learning more about mobile app development can register for our upcoming Inside Social Apps conference June 6 to 7 in San Francisco.

Japanese mobile-social gaming juggernaut GREE recently laid off around 30 employees from its San Francisco office, according to GameIndustry International.

“We have recently aligned GREE’s U.S. studio to focus on creating the next generation of mobile social games,” said Anil Dharni, chief operating officer of GREE, in an official statement. “This shift in focus has been clearly demonstrated by the success and growth of our games. As part of ensuring that we are operating as efficiently as possible, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our work force. The employees leaving today have made great contributions to our success and we wish them all the best.”

In December 2012, GREE restructured its company, letting go 25 people, mostly from GREE’s social networking platform OpenFeint team. GREE announced the closing of OpenFeint a month prior to the layoffs. GREE acquired OpenFeint in April 2011 for $104 million as part of the Japanese company’s efforts to expand into Western markets.

Stay tuned to Inside Mobile Apps for GREE’s Q3 2013 earnings tomorrow.

Google today announced that all Android developers can now reply to user reviews in Google Play. Developers can reply to app store reviews through the Google Play Developer Console. All replies are displayed publicly below the corresponding user review on Google Play. Users receive an email notification when a developer replies and can either reply to a developer directly by email, or update their review if they feel the need to.

In June 2012, Google first allowed a select group of developers — those with a Top Developer Badge — the ability to respond to specific reviews directly from the Android Developer Console. Google expanded the program to more developers in January. Comparatively, the Apple App Store still doesn’t have the ability for developers to directly respond to user reviews.

Responding to app reviews is helpful to developers because an app’s average review score is a powerful viral mechanism for app discovery as well as provide a more effective communication channel with their audience to handle any customer support requests like complaints, bugs or suggestions for new features.

Google also provided some best practices when replying to user reviews, which it collected from developers who had the ability to reply to reviews already:

• Check reviews frequently, and involve people from all parts of your organization
• Identify and prioritize bugs based on user impact
• Let users know when their problems are resolved
• Reply constructively to both negative and positive reviews
• Refer users to documentation or other support channels
• Get ideas about new improvements or features
• Thank the users who are your biggest advocates

Developers interested in learning more about replying to user reviews can go here to see Google’s posting guidelines.

Google Translate is an Android and iOS app from Google. It was recently updated to version 2.0 on most Android devices, while the iOS and older versions of Android continue to run a previous version. It is available for free on Google Play and the iTunes App Store and carries no additional in-app purchases.

Google’s ability to translate words, phrases, and webpages has become a useful tool for users of all interests and professions. The Google Translate app presents all the same functionality of Google’s web translator on a mobile device, allowing users to translate text and voice in over 70 languages on the go. Android users get the added bonus of camera functionality, which allows the user to take a picture of text, and have it translated on the spot.

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WeChat now has 190 million MAU – Tencent’s deputy general manager Hou Xiaonan revealed on the final day of the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) in Bejing that the company’s messaging app WeChat now has 190 million monthly active users (MAU). This put’s WeChat on par with U.S. messaging app competitor WhatsApp, which reveled in April that it has north of 200 million MAU.

Viber reaches 200 million user mark, launches desktop client – Mobile communication app Viber recently reached the 200 million user mark, up from its last reported user figure of 140 million in December 2012, and launched a desktop client. Viber’s main competitors are messaging apps like WhatsApp and VoIP services like Skype.

Plants vs. Zombies 2 launching this July – Electronic Arts’-owned game studio PopCap revealed that its upcoming Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time will launch sometime this July. No platforms have been revealed yet.

Gameloft announces movie tie-in mobile game for Blue Sky Studios’ Epic – French mobile game developer announced a new game based on the upcoming animated feature Epic from Fox Digital Entertainment and Blue Sky Studios. This is the second game partnership between Gameloft and Fox Digital Entertainment for a Blue Sky Studios, with Ice Age Village as the first title, which launched in April 2012. The game will launch in May to coincide with the film’s theatrical release.

Amazon launches Appstore in China – Amazon launched its Android in Appstore in China this week. Amazon becomes the first western company to offer paid Android apps in the county, beating Google to the punch since Google Play only offers free apps in China, not paid apps.

Gameloft launches Blitz Brigade for iOS and Android – Gameloft recently launched its free-to-play team-based shooter Blitz Brigade, which is takes place in a World War 2 setting. Look for our review of the game sometime next week.

Sunstorm Games currently sees 10M MAU, 1M DAU, 140M downloads – A relatively unknown mobile game developer and publisher called Sunstorm Games announced that its user base has grown to 10 million monthly active users (MAU) and one million daily active users (DAU) along with seeing 140 million downloads of its titles. The game studio’s most popular franchise is its “Maker” series, while the company has also built long-term partnerships with brands like Icee and SuperPretzel.

Game Insight brings 2020: My Country to iOS and Amazon – Russian mobile game giant Game Insight released its city builder 2020: My Country, which was first available for Android, on the Apple App Store and Amazon Appstore. The title is the follow up to Game Insight’s other city-building strategy game My Country.

Kamicat raises a round of funding from iVentureCapital – German mobile-social game maker recently raised a round of funding for an undisclosed amount from iVentureCapital. The Hanover, Germany-based Kamikat is most known for its game Kamicat Football for Facebook, which currently has five million registered users.

TenFarms raises $2.7M in a round of funding – Mobile startup TenFarms, which is working on two products — Photopoll and Adtile — recently raised $2.7 million in a round of funding from an undisclosed angel investor. The funds are going toward the deployment of Adtile, a new mobile advertising product that allows native integration with apps and websites, and to support the contiuous development of Photopoll, a multi-photo polling app.

Folks from Paltalk, MessageMe and Tango will be speaking about mobile messaging at our Inside Social Apps conference June 6 to 7 in San Francisco. Learn more here.

Free-to-play online gaming giant Nexon today posted year-over-year revenue growth of 46 percent to 44.4 billion yen ($437.3 million) and 15.2 billion yen ($149.7 million) in net income for the first quarter of 2013, which ended March 31. The South Korean game developer is well known for its free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game MapleStory.

“We are pleased that our first quarter results exceeded the high end of the outlook we provided last quarter, primarily due to better-than-expected performance in China and strong results in Korea, as well as a favorable currency environment,” said Seungwoo Choi, president and CEO of Nexon, in a statement. “Additionally, the acquisitions of Gloops and inBlue have positioned us as a major player in mobile, adding significant revenue to our business. Content updates to our major PC games were well-received by players around the world, particularly a tier 1 update for Dungeon&Fighter in China. We also successfully launched FIFA Online 3 in Korea during the quarter, and the game is showing strong performance in terms of both user metrics and revenues.”

The burgeoning Chinese market was the strongest for Nexon this quarter, seeing the country account for nearly half of its revenue. South Korea, which is where Nexon was founded in 1994, contributed to a quarter of the company’s revenue. Revenue from North America was a blip on the radar for Nexon, which only generated 1.4 billion yen ($13.8 million). (more…)

After years of beta releases, Nuance has released Swype Keyboard on Google Play. It’s currently available for $0.99 cents, with no additional in-app purchases.

Swype became famous as one of the first touchscreen keyboards to allow input by sliding your finger across the letters of the word, opposed to tapping for each individual letter, space  and punctuation mark. Swype has seen numerous competitors release keyboard apps with similar features, but Swype’s extensive language list, customization options, smart autocorrect, and number of gestures, have allowed Swype to stand out from its competition. When first opened, Swype will walk users through its basic functions, set up customization, and download any requested language packs. From there, it’s all a matter of choosing the preferred input method and getting acclimated to the system.

Swype has quite a few input methods, but the one that stands out is swiping. Presented with a standard QWERTY keyboard, users will place their finger on the first letter of a word, and then drag across each following letter. When the word is complete, users will lift their finger to indicate a space and begin swiping the next word. Punctuation and capitalization can be done by tapping the appropriate keys or by swiping the appropriate gestures. Gestures are frequently used to make up for the areas where Swype may become confused, such as capitalizing proper nouns or ending a sentence. Some gestures are quick and simple, like swiping from “x” to the space key, which creates an exclamation point. Other gestures take a bit more time, and may require selecting an option from the predictive text menu. (more…)

Editor’s note: Today’s guest post comes Quinton Wall, director of platform technical evangelism at Salesforce.

Despite all of the hype around mobile computing, I think too many are underestimating the impact of mobile. That’s right: underestimating the mobile transformation underway. Maybe not in the near term, but definitely over the long run. Think about it. For the first time, high school graduates won’t recall the feeling of working without a fully-powered, always-connected computing device in their pocket. That’s a powerful demographic tailwind behind the sails of mobile, and a big reason why, according to IDC, by 2015, at 1.3 billion people, 37.2 percent of the entire global workforce will be mobile.

How do software companies and independent software developers capitalize on this? It’s certainly on the top of mind of the developers we speak with. In a recent discussion with Athani Krishna, co-founder and vice president of product strategy at field service automation software provider ServiceMax Inc. expressed his excitement around mobile, and the opportunity it presents. Krishna made it clear that success here has little to do with the precise phone or tablet form-factor they’re using. No, what is more important is the context of what the user wants to achieve and where they’re trying to complete that task. It’s about all of the other dimensions mobile computing brings between the app and the user such as their location, connectivity quality, and others in the work or social network that may be nearby. “The idea of mobile first design is something that’s a big force for us, and we’re engineering that into all of our applications,” Krishna said.

Successful software companies must be able to design to mobile and they need to be able to do so swiftly. Here are the handful of must-have capabilities we believe developers need to succeed today: (more…)

Korean mobile game developer and publisher earlier this week reported record quarterly revenue of 24.9 billion KRW ($22.8 million) in Q1 2013, up 17 percent quarter-over-quarter and 121 percent year-over-year. Profit improved tremendously as well, where in the company saw 8.6 billion KRW ($7.9 million) in profit for the quarter, an increase of 184 percent quarter-over-quarter and 120 percent year-over-year.

Mobile revenues domestically (South Korea) were up 34 percent quarter-on-quarter and 274 percent year-over-year at 18.3 billion KRW ($16.8 million). Com2uS cited games on messaging app KakaoTalk’s game platform as a key driver to the revenue increase. Sales overseas were down 18 percent quarter-over-quarter but up 1 percent year-over-year at 5.4 billion KRW ($4.9 million). Com2uS explained that most new titles launch first on KakaoTalk then overseas, where the platform doesn’t exist. The company plans to expand to more markets around the globe in Q2 2013.

A standout title for the company, in terms of revenue, was its recently launched strategy RPG title Heroes War, which is seeing stable revenue growth.

In total, Com2uS launch six titles in Q1 and plans to release 16 titles in Q2 2013. Com2uS didn’t update its earnings forecast for 2013, meaning its sticking with its expected 101.7 billion KRW ($93.2 million) in revenue and 41.1 billion KRW ($22.1 million) in profit.

Japanese mobile-social gaming juggernaut DeNA today reported 52.3 billion yen (approximately $528 million) in revenue for its fourth quarter of 2013, a 22 percent increase year-over-year, while operating profit rose 3 percent from the same quarter of the previous year to 18.2 billion yen ($184 million). For the 2012 fiscal year, the company set a new earnings records with revenues of 202.5 billion yen ($2.04 billion) and 76.8 billion yen ($775 million) in operating profit, up 38 and 28 percent respectively.

“DeNA’s full-year revenues and operating profits increased for the ninth consecutive year, representing growth every year since the company went public,” said Isao Moriyasu, President and CEO of DeNA, in a statement. “We will continue to pursue aggressive growth worldwide for our mobile internet business, especially in the mobile-social games sector.” (more…)