Fifty percent of all mobile games distributed via Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store yield revenues under $3,000 throughout their lifecycle according to the results of a new developer survey conducted by Owen Goss, founder of Streaming Colour Studios, the startup behind iOS titles including Dapple and LandFormer.

Roughly 250 iOS developers participated in the online survey, conducted during the week of Sept. 19. Goss found that the top 20 percent of iOS developers earn 97 percent of App Store revenues, with the top 1 percent earning more than a third of App Store payouts. Only 25 percent of developers have earned more than $30,000 lifetime total revenue selling iOS games and another 25 percent of developers have hauled in less than $200. Four percent of survey respondents have earned more than $1 million in the App Store.

App Store games generated median revenues of $1,100 over the last 12 months–in other words, half earned more than $1,100 and the other half brought in less. Goss adds that a quarter of games earned more than $10,675 and another quarter generated less than $140.

Freemium mobile games–i.e., titles that are free to download but offer premium in-app transactions like virtual currency and virtual goods–generate 65 percent of gaming revenues in the App Store according to data published in July by mobile app analytics provider Flurry. The report states that the number of consumers who spend money in a free game ranges from 0.5 percent to 6 percent, with spending influenced by the quality of the title and its core mechanics. Ninety percent of consumers are still not spending a dime on in-game transactions.

Games remain the most popular mobile application category, with 64 percent of U.S. wireless subscribers playing mobile titles in the last 30 days, according to research published by Nielsen. Gamers across Apple’s iOS platform spend 14.7 hours a month playing mobile titles, while the average gamer spends 9.3 hours each month. Sixty-nine percent of iOS gamers download titles from the App Store–14 percent play preloaded games, 4 percent turn to web games and 3 percent play games transferred from another device.

Developers make the most money from apps developed for BlackBerry devices, according to market research company Evans Data.

The study, which covered 400 developers, found that 13 percent of BlackBerry developers make at least US$100,000 per app, “considerably more” than Android or Apple developers, according to Evans Data CEO Janel Garvin.

She said this will mean BlackBerry devices “continue to be compelling to developers, especially in the enterprise.”

“The industry has a perception that developers are going to target either Android or Apple, and those two will define the market. However, there’s room for more than two,” Garvin added.

However, Google’s Android Market is the app store most widely used by commercial developers, with 47 percent of those surveyed saying they have experience of the store compared to 43 percent for Apple’s App Store. Android Market was also tipped by the majority of developers to be the dominant app store in two years’ time.

Other figures to emerge from the research showed that the most-used monetisation model by app developees is paid apps without ads, followed by subscriptions. The biggest complaint developers had about app stores is poor visibility for their apps, with 37 percent citing this as an issue.

Samsung Electronics reportedly plans to open its Bada mobile operating system to other manufacturers and software developers in 2012, a measure to accelerate growth of the smartphone platform while also distancing the company from its reliance on Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android OS.

Citing a source familiar with Samsung’s plans, The Wall Street Journal reports the company has no plans to acquire a software company or mobile operating system, instead betting it can expand Bada beyond smartphones to so-called smart TVs and other connected devices by opening the platform to partners. The approach worked famously for Google, which made Android available as an open-source platform at launch–roughly three years later, Android is the largest mobile OS worldwide, commanding 48 percent of the global smartphone market according to data issued last month by Canalys. (Samsung is presently the world’s largest Android vendor, Canalys adds.)

Samsung introduced Bada in late 2009, targeting Europe and emerging markets. The manufacturer has not yet introduced a Bada device for the U.S. market. According to market research firm Gartner, Bada powered 1.9 percent of all smartphones sold globally in the second quarter.

“Hardware vendor-controlled platforms that move from closed to open do not have a great track record in the past. Nokia (NYSE:NOK) failed dismally with Symbian, for example,” Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston tells the WSJ. “For Samsung to be successful with opening Bada it will need to be launched in the United States market, because that is where the most powerful developers and consumers are found. If Bada does not get traction in the huge U.S. market, then the odds will be stacked against success.”

Samsung’s future plans and continued commitment to Android have been the subject of considerable speculation in recent weeks, especially in the wake of Google’s agreement to acquire Motorola Mobility (NYSE:MMI) for roughly $12.5 billion. Google has promised Android will remain open, but analysts speculate that manufacturers building Android devices may not enjoy the same technological support and access given to Motorola once the company is absorbed into the Google family.

There’s also the question of whether Samsung wants to continue mortgaging its future on Android when the platform is facing so many questions over patent rights. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has already targeted Samsung with legal action, alleging that its Android products copy Apple designs and is seeking a worldwide sales ban–Samsung has responded with a countersuit of its own, contending Apple is in violation of its wireless technology patents.

Samsung recently denied reports it would bid to acquire Hewlett-Packard’s webOS mobile platform. “It’s not right that acquiring an operating system is becoming a fashion,” Samsung CEO Choi Gee Sung said during the recent IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, adding the company is working to boost its software capabilities “harder than people outside think.”

Separately, Samsung Telecommunications America named former Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) executive Kevin Packingham to be its new senior vice president of product innovation. Packingham, who was at Sprint for 11 years before becoming CEO of lobbying and consulting firm Amerilink Telecom, replaces Omar Khan, who left Samsung in July to head Citigroup’s mobile solutions business.

By Jason Ankeny

Following its recent announcement of the “Live With Walkman” Android smartphone, Sony has today officially introduced the Walkman Z Series (Japanese press release) of personal media players.

These Android 2.3 devices will weigh approximately 156g and will feature the following specs:

• 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core CPU
• 4.3 TFT color LCD, WVGA (480 × 800)
• 512MB RAM
• Bluetooth
• 802.11b/g/n WiFi
• WEP/WPA/WPA2 Encryption
• GPS
• E-Compass
• G-Sensor
• FM Radio
• Built-in mono speaker (this is an interesting choice considering this device is billed as a “Walkman” phone)
• HDMI output
• DLNA

As these devices are billed as “Walkman” PMPs the lack of a camera is not entirely surprising.

Mobile app downloads should top 144% growth this year. That translates to 18 billion downloads. Last year the already impressive figure was 7.4 billion downloads.

If the current growth rate is maintained we will see close to 40 billion downloads a year by 2016 !

And this isn’t just free downloads. Premium downloads are set to reach $3.7 billion by year end. That is a exponential growth of 92% over last year.

Google must choose between staying true to its core business or reshaping into the new vertical giant that will challenge Apple at its own game. Research Director Andreas Constantinou discusses Google’s dilemma and why both outcomes stand to radically change the rules of the Android Empire]

Google’s forthcoming acquisition of Motorola for $12.5B has been largely dubbed a patent deal. And it is. But beyond the patents, Google faces a fundamental dilemma for its core business, and one that will determine the future of the Android Empire.

In mid-August Google announced it intends to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings (MMI), which includes the mobile phone, set top box and DVR businesses, for $12.5B. The true cost to Google is much less though, given that MMI has cash and accrued tax benefits. The move has seen an unprecedented amount of analysis in the blogosphere, with a fair amount of guesswork as to what Google’s motivations were in buying a hardware company.

We believe that Motorola’s acquisition is not just about patents. The move marks a major turning point in how Google runs the Android Empire. Let’s see why.

Twenty-eight percent of American adults use their mobile phones to access location-based mobile and social services according to a new survey issued by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Click here to see a larger version of this chart from Pew.

Twenty-eight percent of all U.S. mobile subscribers (translating to 23 percent of adults) rely on their phones to get directions or recommendations based on their current location, Pew reports. Only 5 percent of users/4 percent of adults use geo-social services like foursquare and Gowalla to check in at local destinations, although 9 percent of Internet users/7 percent of adults have set up their social media profiles across platforms including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to automatically include their whereabouts in their posts on those services.

Pew adds that usage rises when the study focuses exclusively on smartphone owners. Fifty-five percent of smartphone users have accessed a location-based information service, and one in 10 have used a geo-social check-in tool.

Pew also notes the popularity of geo-social services and automatic tagging options vary significantly across demographics. A quarter of Hispanic smartphone owners leverage geo-social services and 31 percent enable automatic location tagging. And while only 7 percent of white smartphone owners use geo-social services, 59 percent access location-based information on their phones, a larger percentage than the 53 percent of blacks and 44 percent of Hispanics.