At least Four Korean apps have been successful in making it to the Top 10 paid iPhone app listing in the Asian region. this indicates an encouraging development for the Korean developers who have yearned for jumping into the rapidly-expanding mobile software market.
According to a recent website report, ‘Birzzle’, a game created by the Korea app developer Enfeel Inc., has ranked first as well as 10th simultaneously in the listing assembled by Distimo, a market research firm based in the Netherlands. Distimo said that it evaluated the data founded on the volume of apps downloaded in Asia during May last.
The dual listing shows the unusual market conditions of iPhone app store in Korea. since there is no games classification in Korea’s app store for Apple Inc.’s iPhone users owing to a regulatory fiasco, Enfeel catalogs its game in the games segment outside of Korea when it is selling them in the entertainment group in Korea.
‘PhotoShake!’ is another top Korean app in the paid list and secured the third rank. MotionOne Co., a photo editing tool that helps users to merge various images into one simply by shaking their phones, has developed this iPhone app. on the other hand, ‘Paladog’ developed by CGFORCE was ranked eighth. this app, released in January 2011, rests on a charming character and appealing character boosting system. Previously, ‘Paladog’ had secured the first rank in the Korean local iPhone paid app listing for consecutive two months.
As far as the ranking for paid iPad apps is concerned, Birzzle HD secured the fourth rank in the entertainment group, revealing it commercial demand even on the big screen. ‘Club Matgo Online HD’ developed by Fungrep is another Korean app, which is basically a game adapted from a popular card game in Korea known as ‘Go-Stop’.
Incidentally, CINE21 developed by DFolio is the sole Korean app that finds place in the Top 10 free iPad app ranking. this is an iPad edition of a movie weekly of identical time, with just the special release issue being available free, while the two other are being marketed for $0.99 each.
It may be noted that in December 2009, Apple launched its iPhone in the Korean market and till January this year, the number of users have exceeded two million. this is despite the fact that owing to government controls, the local users are still not able to acquire music and game content on the iTunes store apps.