Digital Smart Toy Genre Shows Explosive Growth in 2010 as Mobile Developer Tops 1 Million Downloads and $200k in Revenue on Christmas Day
Palo Alto, CA–January 23, 2011– Outift7 announced today that their Talking Friends collection of iOS and Android apps has just eclipsed 60 million downloads, making it one of the fastest growing mobile application developers in the history of the space. Outfit7’s Talking Friends collection features eight characters that respond to touches, pokes and swipes with different actions and repeat what users say in their unique Talking Friends character voice. Digital smart toys, which burst onto the scene in 2010, saw extraordinary growth as users collectively logged hundreds of millions of hours of app usage. With the emerging digital smart toy market continuing to experience steady growth, Outfit7, the developers at the forefront of the phenomenon, expect to exceed 100 Million total iOS and Android downloads during 2011’s second quarter.
“Our growth is powered by what I would call the Law of Unintended Consequences. Kids
are using smart phones in ways that were never anticipated. While observing kids playing with our apps, we realized we were no longer an app developer, but a mobile toy maker” says Andrej Nabergoj, CEO of Outfit7. “The global toy industry, a nearly $100B business, is more than double the size of the game industry. It’s been a long time since anyone has been able to disrupt that business.”
Users of all ages have embraced the new form of mobile entertainment and industry experts have taken notice:
“Digital toys offer an interactive component that provide instant feedback to a child’s actions. This instant-feedback-loop can help a child develop hand-eye coordination skills and understand the concept of action-reaction, trial and error and other mental skills used in problem solving, ” says Reyne Rice, Toy Trend Expert. “This is a whole new world of play, and the options are endless.”
Since its launch in July, Talking Tom Cat, the first and most successful app of the bunch, has permeated through pop culture and the mainstream media as evidenced by the app’s recent cameo appearance on ABC’s hit sitcom Modern Family (watch the clip here). Six months and 35 million downloads later, Talking Tom Cat has resonated with users all over the world thanks to its universal appeal. Since each Talking Friend is programmed to respond to a user’s voice as well as their touch, the charm of these apps translates into any and every language (Chinese Toddler plays with Talking Tom Cat). Compared to most apps, which see 30-45% of their downloads come from outside the U.S., Outfit7’s apps receive a much higher 67% of their downloads from international users
Outfit7 is also seeing conversion rates on their in-app purchases, in upwards of 10% on average. With three of Outfit7’s eight iOS apps available free of charge, in-app purchases, and their sound performance have provided the company with a healthy revenue stream heading into 2011. The new year is set to be a lucrative one for the successful developer, with 18 apps scheduled for a 2011 release.
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