Our friends at Adfreak have scoured the backwaters of YouTube videos to find the most-watched ads ever.

While some on the list of 20 were pretty expected—like "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" and Michael Jackson's "Pepsi Generation"— the most watched ad ever is a relative newcomer.

At almost 75 MILLION views, this ad for Angry Birds came in first place.

The second most-watched ad, which came right above Volkswagen's instant classic "The Force," was this creepy Evian commercial featuring dancing babies.

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Rovio, the Finnish company behind the runaway success of Angry Birds, has released its latest game today.

Called "Bad Piggies," the game puts you in control of the famous green pigs from as you build wacky vehicles to use in an attempt to steal eggs from the birds.

It's available for iOS for $0.99 and is free on Android.

Take a look at the trailer below:

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Angry Birds maker Rovio released its newest game last week, Bad Piggies, and it shot straight to the top of the paid app rankings on the iPhone.

It's run at the top may be short lived, though. Unlike Angry Birds, Bad Piggies is not a simple game to understand. Therefore it's not much fun.

Bad Piggies is a spin out from the Angry Birds franchise. Instead of using birds to blow up the pigs, players build contraptions for the pigs to capture eggs. The game's theme is the opposite of Angry Bids. And unfortunately for Rovio, the game's playability is also the opposite.

This weekend I told my Dad to download Bad Piggies. He has just about every Angry Birds game on his iPhone, so I assumed he'd want the latest from Rovio. He played with it for twenty minutes before telling me he couldn't figure it out. I assumed he was being a difficult old man and went to play the game myself. I was perplexed by the game. It wasn't intuitive, it wasn't fun. I couldn't figure it out.

Three hours later my dad told me he deleted the game from his phone.

This morning when I came to office, Business Insider's personal tech guru Steve Kovach told me his mom tried the game this weekend and couldn't figure it out either. She had no idea what she was doing, and gave up. And she's an "Angry Birds junkie." Business Insider's Kevin Smith, who writes about apps all the time, downloaded Bad Piggies and couldn't figure it out.

Rovio envisions itself as a multi-billion company in the early stages of becoming the next Disney, a media company currently valued at $94 billion. It already reportedly rejected a $2.25 billion offer from Zynga last year. Earlier this year, Reuters cited "analysts" saying Rovio could be worth $9 billion.

If it's going to become the next Disney, then it's going to need more than just Angry Birds. It's going to need a diverse group of games people love. Eventually, people will burn out on Angry Birds.

Bad Piggies doesn't look like it's the next big franchise for Rovio. (Unless, it re-tools the game to make it easier for the normals to use.)

Until we see Rovio release some games that succeed beyond Angry Birds, we're going to be extremely skeptical of its ambitions to become the next Disney. If it's not careful, it could end up being the next Zynga. A hot gaming company people thought would develop into a world changing company that ultimately came up short.

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Rovio, the makers of the popular Angry Birds series, will release Angry Birds Star Wars on November 8 for iPhone, iPad, and Android.

The game is one of several new titles from the company, including Bad Piggies, which launched a few days ago.

Here's the teaser trailer for Angry Birds Star Wars. Watch it. It's awesome.

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No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. Chinese McDonald's are giving their Golden Arches a new purpose: serving as a catapult for Angry Birds.

According to a press release, customers can vote on which of the 1,500 branded location will host the life size slingshot "to protect McDonald's food from the pigs."

TBWA Shanghai worked with game developer Rovio to create the campaign, which involves online media, outdoor ads, and location-based promotions like providing gamers with extra power-ups if they play on their iPhones in McDonald's.

This is just the most recent chapter of Rovio's aggressive Angry Bird marketing blitz in China.

Although there's currently an unauthorized Angry Bird theme park in China, Rovio announced legitimate plans to "build hundreds, maybe even thousands of activity parks" in the country.

Click to enlarge the image below.

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Rovio will release its next Angry Birds game, Angry Birds Star Wars, on November 8. Today, it released the first trailer with gameplay footage.

Let's get right to it:

We see the classic birds with all kinds of Star Wars-themed modifications. Are there lightsabers? There are. Will we buy this? We will.

Now cue a million "these are the birds you're looking for" jokes.

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Angry Birds. Star Wars. The very thought of these two global entertainment brands coming together was controversial when first announced, with plenty of critics suggesting the Star Wars brand was somehow being sullied by the association with a mobile game series that didn't exist five years ago.

It was as if these critics hadn't watched The Phantom Menace, or had blocked out the vision of Darth Vader and Yoda plugging PC World and Vodafone in TV ads. If anything, an association with Angry Birds in 2012 is a step up for Star Wars, given its recent history.

That said, scepticism about such a partnership is understandable: when the world's biggest entertainment brand ever meets the most popular brand of the mobile apps era, the danger is compromise: a game so hemmed in by brand guidelines that it forgets to be fun.

The alternative, though, is a game that recaptures the thrill several generations of children felt when watching those first three Star Wars films, playing with the toys, or roaring round the garden pretending to be the Millennium Falcon.

Can Angry Birds Star Wars sidestep the compromise and deliver the thrills? Yes it can. This is a treat for Star Wars fans and Angry Birds fans alike.

The game will be available today (8 November) for iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices, as well as Mac, PC and Windows 8 (which I'm assuming means tablets running Microsoft's new OS too, like the Surface).

Gameplay-wise, it's a mix of all the previous Angry Birds games to date, including the basic bird-slinging action of the first three games in the series, and the gravity-ruled planetary action of Angry Birds Space.

It's essentially a Best Of compilation of Angry Birds so far, but with the Star Wars universe wrapped around it, starting with the TIE Fighters on the intro screen. Yes, with the proper sound.

The initial Angry Birds Star Wars download includes 80 levels split equally between two worlds: Tatooine and the Death Star.

A further 40 levels are available in a third world, Dagobah, if you choose to buy it for an in-app purchase of £1.49, but the game also teases an upcoming free update with a fourth world, Hoth. There is also a set of bonus levels starring C-3PO and R2-D2 birds to unlock.

The gameplay is familiar Angry Birds - catapult birds to destroy all the pigs on a level, earning one, two or three stars depending how well you do it.

Within the worlds, you segue smoothly between levels offering the two flavours of Angry Birds (Space and non-Space). For example, the Death Star world starts you in Space, then moves inside, then back out again for a final Death Star trench run.

There are a number of other Star Wars additions. For example, a few levels into Tatooine, the red bird gets a light sabre, which you swing to destructive effect at any point during his flight by tapping the screen. He even has Luke Skywalker hair.

Meanwhile, the yellow bird now shoots lasers - complete with authentic Star Wars sound effects - the black bird can use The Force to send objects shooting off with a tap, and there's a heavy Chewbacca bird to barrel through obstacles.

The pigs? They dress as stormtroopers, Darth Vader and even get to hop in Tie-Fighters and fire lasers of their own.

All this is more than just for show: it moves the Angry Birds gameplay on a notch, particularly when lasers are involved. Think thwacking laser beams with the light sabre in mid-air to hit hard-to-reach pigs, or dislodging laser-firing enemies so they end up shooting their own side.

Rovio has also reworked its Mighty Eagle power-up: it's now the Mighty Falcon. When triggered, a Millennium Falcon flies onto the screen and lets loose with its lasers to (hopefully) reduce to dust a level that you've been struggling with.

You have a finite number of Mighty Falcons to use, although Angry Birds Star Wars is pretty generous dishing more out as you progress through the game. You can also pay for them, though: from £1.49 for 20 through to £13.99 for 200.

Charging for power-ups can be controversial, but Rovio handles its IAP well. I manage to progress through all 80 of the game's preloaded levels without needing to buy any Mighty Falcons (and I did use a few). If £1.49 for another 40 levels seems steep, you can choose to wait for the free Hoth update instead.

There's a good 5-6 hours gameplay to be had working your way through the Tatooine, Death Star and Dagobah worlds by completing the levels with one, two or three stars.

Then there are a fair few more hours in store if you go back to nail three stars on every level, as a lot of Angry Birds fans like to do. The iOS version builds in Apple's Game Center to compare friends' scores and in-game achievements.

Angry Birds has been an app store phenomenon since fairly early in its life, and to some extent its popularity since has been self-fulfilling: it was at the top of the charts, so millions, then tens of millions, then hundreds of millions of people downloaded it.

That's not the whole story though. Angry Birds Star Wars is a timely reminder that the series' billion-plus downloads is also down to strong word-of-mouth recommendations of a game that's accessible and addictive.

It's also a reminder that developer Rovio continues to put a lot of effort and craft into Angry Birds as a game, rather than just a brand to be milked.

So yes, there are new Angry Birds Star Wars plush toys and heaven knows how many other bits of merchandise, but the game is also an imaginative evolution of the core bird-slinging mechanic, just as Angry Birds Space was before it. Little touches - the new weapons - really do make a difference.

Angry Birds Star Wars is the best Angry Birds game yet, and the best Star Wars spin-off in a long time. It's going to be big, and deservedly so.

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

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Angry Birds Star Wars has been topping app store charts around the world, but now the game's developer Rovio has its sights set on Hollywood: an official Angry Birds movie to be filmed in 3D.

The company has announced that the film will be released in the summer of 2016, with John Cohen signed on to produce it, and David Maisel executive producing. Rovio will be making and financing the film itself, rather than working with a big studio partner.

Cohen's production credits include Despicable Me and Hop, although his CV also includes work on Ice Age, Robots and Dr Seuss' Horton Hears a Who. Rovio's announcement also boasts that he "had the idea to reimagine Alvin and the Chipmunks" for their 2007 movie comeback.

Maisel, meanwhile, has been working with Rovio in an advisory role since June 2011. He used to be chairman of Marvel Studios, and was also executive producer on the Iron Man film.

"With John's hands-on producer background and David´s expertise in establishing and running his own successful studio, these two are the dream team for making a movie outside the studio system," says Rovio CEO Mikael Hed in a statement.

While fans have a four-year wait for the film to be released, Rovio will be filling the gap with short-form animation. In April 2012, the company announced plans to make 52 episodes to be released weekly through digital channels, although they missed their promised launch window of Autumn 2012.

"We're going to roll it out on all possible devices," said head of animation Nick Dorra at the time. "We're looking at building a video app for that, and we're also looking at partnerships and so on... We want to be on all screens."

By keeping control of the movie's finance and production, Rovio will be able to choose its distribution channels for that too: potentially making it available to watch on smartphones and tablets shortly after its cinema debut.

The company certainly has the internal capabilities to make a film. The same month it hired Maisel, it acquired Finnish animation studio Kombo to gear up for the planned animated shorts and film.

Rovio also has a huge community of Angry Birds fans to promote the film to – assuming they're still fans in 2016. In October 2012, executive vice president Andrew Stalbow said the games have been downloaded more than 1bn times, and had 20m-30m daily active players, and 200m monthly active players.

Stalbow also talked then about Rovio's big-screen ambitions. "Hollywood has seen the success that Angry Birds has had, and Hollywood is hot for our brand, and hot for working with us on many different levels," he said. "For us, the shortform series is just the start of our plans in animation."

As a franchise, Angry Birds has been lucrative already for Rovio. Financials published in May revealed that the company's total revenues were €75.4m (£60.8m) for 2011, with earnings before tax of €48m (£38.7m). 30% of those revenues came from merchandise and licensing income.

Rovio's grand ambitions have often been treated with derision by other companies within the mobile games industry, and the wider entertainment world.

Yet the company has made a habit of delivering on its promises, and has already attracted a generation of young fans responding to the birds as characters, rather than a specific game mechanic.

With that in mind, the mobile and entertainment industries would do well not to write off the film, even if it is four years away.

"We want to be the first entertainment brand with one billion fans," said marketing boss Peter Vesterbacka at the recent SLUSH conference in Helsinki.

"People think of the one company people use day, which is Coca Cola, and that's just a soft drink. So it should be straight-forward for us to get to one billion fans every day in the next two to three years..."

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

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Good morning, AdLand. Here's what you need to know today:

There are Angry Birds clothes, toys, movies, amusement parks, and now there's an Angry Birds ad business. Rather than continuing to allow a third party network to support its in-game display ads, Rovio gain advertising revenue from its own integrated ad unit. Ad Age reports that it will mostly use native ads that integrate into the game itself. Rovio has poached an enviable roster of talent to staff the effort, including former MTV exec Betsy Flounders Novak and former Millennial Media exec Matt Pfeffer. Former Fox Digital exec Andrew Stalbow is EVP/strategic partnerships, Ad Age notes. We previously told you that Mack McKelvey, the former svp marketing at Millennial, left the company in December to work as a consultant to Rovio. The gamemaker is also hiring account execs for its Chicago, Los Angeles and New York offices.

Porsche is down to five agencies to be its official creative agency of record. Finalists include McKinney, CP+B Miami, Droga5, Olson, and Cramer-Krasselt.

Here are the Cannes Lions' 16 jury presidents.

McGarryBowen cut about 10 people in Chicago — or about five percent of that office.

Panera's new ads focus on social consciousness, highlighting that it donates its bread after closing.

Betterment, a goal-based online investing program, made a hire from the advertising world. Mike Ma, former head of retail advertising and prospect marketing at the Vanguard Group, is Betterment's new chief growth officer. The company also hired Daniel Egan, a former behavioral finance specialist at Barclays, as its director of behavioral finance and investing.

Kim Corrigan joined Rosetta as a partner in the health care vertical. She was previously an EVP group managing director at DraftFCB.

Trademob, a European ad tech startup, just opened up a San Francisco office.

Best Western launched a new ad campaign called "Stay With People Who Care." Gotham Inc made the spots, which focus on customer care. Initiative Media did the media buying.

Previously on Business Insider Advertising:

• Here's Poland Spring's Official Facebook Response To Marco Rubio's Awkward Water Guzzling
• Time Warner's Reportedly Selling People Magazine And Other Publications
• BEHOLD: The First Banner Ad Ever — From 1994
• This Keira Knightley Chanel Ad Was Banned For Being 'Overtly Sexual'
• Everything We Know About The Ad Plan That's 'Plastered Over Every Single Whiteboard In Twitter HQ'
• An Ad Exec Who Inspired 'Mad Men' Has Died 
• 200 Greeks Pooled Their Money To Launch A Tourism Campaign 

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Read it at Forbes >

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Rovio, the company behind the runaway success Angry Birds, has long said it doesn't want to be just a gaming company. It wants to be a media giant just like Disney.

It has started its trek towards Disney-like mega media success by putting cartoons in its app.

BTIGanalyst Richard Greenfield has a video showing how Angry Birds now offers users the option to watch some Angry Birds-based cartoons.

As he points out, Rovio says it has 1.7 billion apps downloaded. This gives it a pretty healthy base to launch a series of cartoons.

We don't know if this will be successful or not, but it's certainly an interesting way to launch a new media company.

Watch the video to see how it works.

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Rovio, the company that makes the popular Angry Birds game, reported just under $200 million in revenue for 2012. It also reported $71 million in profit for the year.

The Finnish company reports that its full year revenue grew by 101 percent in 2012, up from approximately $96 million in 2011.

In 2012, Rovio teamed up with companies like NASA, Walmart, and National Geographic to widen its reach. It also released four new games: Angry Birds Space, Amazing Alex, Bad Piggies, and Angry Birds Star Wars. But games aren't the only way Rovio makes money; it has a huge consumer product division that sells tons of Angry Bird stuffed animals, T-shirts, and other branded gear.

Rovio has huge ambitions, last year CMO Pete Vesterbacka revealed that his company wants to emulate Disney with the goal of being a much larger entertainment brand. In 2011 Rovio turned down a $2 billion acquisition offer from Zynga.

SEE ALSO: The 12 Funniest Google Searches Ever >

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Social Media Insights is a daily newsletter from Business Insider that collects and delivers the top social media news first thing every morning. You can sign up to receive Social Media Insightshere or at the bottom of this post.

The Death Of The Social Media Strategist (uber.la)
It's hard to figure out what to call this job having to do with social media marketing. If all we talk about is social media we're talking about 8 percent of the total marketing budget. There are plenty more online channels that could fall into our bucket (email, search engines, online ads), but as a line item, it's easy to see how social is often not the first priority. But the bottom line is this: social media is part of the mix, but it is not the solution. As a single channel, social will deliver very little in terms of ROI. Here's the good news, as part of a coordinated program (where social feeds email, and SEO, and online ads) social media can be the accelerator.  Read >>

Why The Future Of Business Is Shared Experiences (Social Media Today)
Jeff Ashcroft and @TheSocialCMO host the popular #MMchat (Marketer Monday) every week. It’s a rapid fire exchange and makes for exciting dialog in real-time. Check out some of the questions and answers:

Q: Why are experiences more important today than ever before?
A: When people ask questions for advice or direction, shared experiences are the result. In social, they’re more important than ever.

Q: Seems like everyone is talking about disruption. You’re saying disruption is more than just social media, can you elaborate?
A: Social is just one part of disruption. I call it The Wheel of Disruption and it includes big data, mobile, real-time, etc.

The full transcript including all responses, questions, and answers is here. Read >>

What Makes A True Social Business Strategist? (InSites Consulting)
A true social business strategist is someone who is … social! If you’re not interested in other people, their behavior, and the things that motivate them, you have no business being a social business strategist. The days that money was invested in a nice-looking Facebook or LinkedIn campaign are long gone. A true social business strategist will make sure that their social initiatives eventually contribute to the business goals of the organization; these being more income, less expenses, and greater customer satisfaction. Read >>

What To Expect From The Facebook Event Today (The Huffington Post)
What can we expect? Below, we've collected all the rumors and speculation in one place, for your convenience. Get ready, friends: Facebook's about to poke the smartphone business with something special.

• Facebook Home: an Android-based operating system
• A Facebook Home Phone from HTC hardware
• A lot of explaining as to why you'd want one

If Facebook can make a compelling case, its long-gestating smartphone and smartphone operating system will prove a worthy pursuit; if not, then it could go down as just one more thing Facebook users request a dislike button for. Read >>

SEC: Social Media OK For Delivering News (Business Journal)
It used to be that if you were interested in learning about a public company, you had to dive into a filing from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but not anymore. According to the commission, executives of public companies eager to share market-moving news can now share it on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  Read >>

Are Social Networks Created Equal? (ExactTarget)
As a marketer, it's your job to keep up with new technologies that can help drive your business forward. With social media, it can be a challenge to keep up with the changing landscape that includes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Reddit, Flickr, and more every day! And what's worse, most social media teams are still very small. Even some of the largest brands in the world have surprisingly small and very busy teams. The most successful brands focus on one or two networks that best suit their audience. Read >>

Questions To Ask Before Taking Your Brand Social (Business2Community)
Social media can be powerful if executed properly. If done carelessly or ineffectively it could have a negative impact as well. Here are some questions to ask prior to jumping in:

1. What is your goal with social?
2. Are you B2C or B2B?
3. What is the social nature of your brand and products?
4. Can you commit long-term?
5. Do you have the resources and technical ability to execute?
6. Are your customers loyal?
7. Can you offer a promotion or incentives?

Ask yourself these questions before getting involved with social media. Read >>

Angry Birds Friends Will Soon Fly From Facebook To The iPhone And iPad (Redmond Pie)
Angry Birds started out as a simple title for the iPhone, but in just a few short years, has evolved into one of the biggest mobile franchises the world has ever seen. Of the 60 million installs of Angry Birds Friends on Facebook, one quarter, or 15 million, are classified as monthly active users. It has been quite a while since Angry Birds Star Wars descended on the App Store, and with Angry Birds Friends being a social-accelerated title, I wouldn’t be surprised if it quickly becomes the most popular version to date when it gets to iOS, barring perhaps the original. Rovio’s embrace of social gaming has been relatively slow all things considered, but with the seeds already sown for this one over at Facebook, it probably won’t take long for them to make up for lost time. Read >>

The Social Sixteen Of March Madness (ViralHeat)
Did you know the University of Miami has been the most social Sweet Sixteen school in this year’s NCAA Tournament? Read >>

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Mobile Insights is a daily newsletter from BI Intelligence that collects and delivers the top mobile industry news. It is delivered first thing every morning exclusively to BI Intelligence subscribers.

Many Of Google's New App Developer Tools Focus On Location-Based Services (SAI)
Google rolled out a series of new features and products for its developer community yesterday. It introduced three new location-based APIs: the Fused Location Provider, which will drastically reduce the battery drain of location features; the Google Geofencing API, which allows apps to respond to users entering or exiting defined geographic areas, sure to be a boon to mobile advertising; and the Activity Recognition API, which will automatically determine if users are walking, running or biking (you can read one developer's thoughts on the new APIs here). Read > 

Games Also Got An Overhaul (Engadget) 
Google Play Game Services brings real-time multiplayer to mobile games, allows users to continue games across devices, and will work across Android, iOS, and the Web. It also comes with an API to monitor piracy, a big issue on Android. Read > 

Developers Also Got A New Environment In Which To Tinker With Apps (ZDnet)
Google also introduced Android Studio is a new developer environment designed to optimize and simplify building Android apps. It is also pushing out five new features to its Developer Console: Optimization Tips, App Translation Service, Referral Tracking, Revenue Graphs, and Beta Testing and Staged Rollouts. Read > 

Sundar Pichai's Strategy: Focus On Apps And Services, And Users (Wired)
Why so much focus on developers? Revenue per Android user has grown 2.5 times from a year ago, per Android boss Sundar Pichai, but it still badly lags rival iOS, especially considering its installed base advantage. Pichai recently told Wired, "Users care about applications and services they use, not operating systems." And who builds those apps and services? Read >

Google Also Released Google Play Music, A Spotify Competitor (The Verge)
Users can now stream music, create on-demand radio, and combine locally stored and streaming tracks into a master playlist for $9.99 per month, the same as Spotify. Unlike Spotify, however, it does not appear to have a free service (i.e. it is not a freemium model). It is not clear what the real advantage of Google Play Music is, if any, excepting perhaps better integration with your Android device. Read >

And Google Hangouts ... A Mobile Messaging App (The Verge)
Similar to WhatsApp, Kik, and Facebook Messenger, it is now available and will eventually replace Google's other communication properties, like Google Talk and Google+ Messenger. Given Google's massive user base, this will only exacerbate carriers' anxieties over lost SMS revenue. However, the mobile messaging space has become very crowded recently, as we discussed in our report on messaging apps. As if that wasn't enough, Google also announced today that users of Google Wallet will be able to send money to friends via Gmail, even if the friend doesn't have Wallet. Read >

Apple's App Store Reaches 50 Billion Downloads (MacRumors)
That's up from 40 billion in January, meaning Apple's App Store is on pace for more than 25 billion app downloads this year. Read >

Mobile Malware Is Exploding—On Android (AppleInsider)
The number of mobile malware families and variants grew nearly 50% in the first quarter, but almost exclusively on Android (with a little on Nokia's antiquated Symbian platform), according to malware researchers F-Secure Labs. About three-quarters of threats are designed to con users out of money, rather than maliciously damage devices. Increasingly, malware developers are creating specialized programs to target weaknesses in the Android platform. This isn't possible under Apple's "closed garden" approach to iOS. Even if Google were to patch the holes, it wouldn't be very effective since most users never update their software. One researcher says the "Android malware ecosystem is beginning to resemble ... Windows." Read >

Samsung Took 95 Percent Of Android Profits In The First Quarter (BGR)
Given that Samsung and Apple account for substantially all industry profits, this is not particularly surprising. However, it is sure to heighten Google's paranoia about Samsung's dominance of Android. Read >

Mobile Accounts For Nearly Half Of Jackthreads' Orders (TechCrunch)
The next wave of e-commerce companies are increasingly mobile-focused. Jackthreads is a flash sale site for contemporary men's fashion that expects to generate $75 to $100 million in revenue this year. Mobile accounts for more than 10% of U.S. e-commerce sales now. Read >  

Rovio, Maker Of Angry Birds, Releases Other Developers' Games (PC Mag)
The first two games developed by outside developers, Icebreaker and Tiny Thief, are "coming soon."Rovio appears to be transforming itself into a mobile games studio. With games accounting for the bulk of time and money spent on mobile, it stands to reasons that money would be left on the table if Rovio leaned exclusively on in-house developers. Read >

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Mobile Insights is a daily newsletter from BI Intelligence delivered first thing every morning exclusively to BI Intelligence subscribers. Sign up for a free trial of BI Intelligence today.

Many Of Google's New App Developer Tools Focus On Location-Based Services (SAI)
Google rolled out a series of new features and products for its developer community yesterday. It introduced three new location-based APIs: the Fused Location Provider, which will drastically reduce the battery drain of location features; the Google Geofencing API, which allows apps to respond to users entering or exiting defined geographic areas, sure to be a boon to mobile advertising; and the Activity Recognition API, which will automatically determine if users are walking, running or biking (you can read one developer's thoughts on the new APIs here). Read > 

Games Also Got An Overhaul (Engadget) 
Google Play Game Services brings real-time multiplayer to mobile games, allows users to continue games across devices, and will work across Android, iOS, and the Web. It also comes with an API to monitor piracy, a big issue on Android. Read > 

Developers Also Got A New Environment In Which To Tinker With Apps (ZDnet)
Google also introduced Android Studio is a new developer environment designed to optimize and simplify building Android apps. It is also pushing out five new features to its Developer Console: Optimization Tips, App Translation Service, Referral Tracking, Revenue Graphs, and Beta Testing and Staged Rollouts. Read > 

Sundar Pichai's Strategy: Focus On Apps And Services, And Users (Wired)
Why so much focus on developers? Revenue per Android user has grown 2.5 times from a year ago, per Android boss Sundar Pichai, but it still badly lags rival iOS, especially considering its installed base advantage. Pichai recently told Wired, "Users care about applications and services they use, not operating systems." And who builds those apps and services? Read >

Google Also Released Google Play Music, A Spotify Competitor (The Verge)
Users can now stream music, create on-demand radio, and combine locally stored and streaming tracks into a master playlist for $9.99 per month, the same as Spotify. Unlike Spotify, however, it does not appear to have a free service (i.e. it is not a freemium model). It is not clear what the real advantage of Google Play Music is, if any, excepting perhaps better integration with your Android device. Read >

And Google Hangouts ... A Mobile Messaging App (The Verge)
Similar to WhatsApp, Kik, and Facebook Messenger, it is now available and will eventually replace Google's other communication properties, like Google Talk and Google+ Messenger. Given Google's massive user base, this will only exacerbate carriers' anxieties over lost SMS revenue. However, the mobile messaging space has become very crowded recently, as we discussed in our report on messaging apps. As if that wasn't enough, Google also announced today that users of Google Wallet will be able to send money to friends via Gmail, even if the friend doesn't have Wallet. Read >

Apple's App Store Reaches 50 Billion Downloads (MacRumors)
That's up from 40 billion in January, meaning Apple's App Store is on pace for more than 25 billion app downloads this year. Read >

Mobile Malware Is Exploding—On Android (AppleInsider)
The number of mobile malware families and variants grew nearly 50% in the first quarter, but almost exclusively on Android (with a little on Nokia's antiquated Symbian platform), according to malware researchers F-Secure Labs. About three-quarters of threats are designed to con users out of money, rather than maliciously damage devices. Increasingly, malware developers are creating specialized programs to target weaknesses in the Android platform. This isn't possible under Apple's "closed garden" approach to iOS. Even if Google were to patch the holes, it wouldn't be very effective since most users never update their software. One researcher says the "Android malware ecosystem is beginning to resemble ... Windows." Read >

Samsung Took 95 Percent Of Android Profits In The First Quarter (BGR)
Given that Samsung and Apple account for substantially all industry profits, this is not particularly surprising. However, it is sure to heighten Google's paranoia about Samsung's dominance of Android. Read >

Mobile Accounts For Nearly Half Of Jackthreads' Orders (TechCrunch)
The next wave of e-commerce companies are increasingly mobile-focused. Jackthreads is a flash sale site for contemporary men's fashion that expects to generate $75 to $100 million in revenue this year. Mobile accounts for more than 10% of U.S. e-commerce sales now. Read >  

Rovio, Maker Of Angry Birds, Releases Other Developers' Games (PC Mag)
The first two games developed by outside developers, Icebreaker and Tiny Thief, are "coming soon."Rovio appears to be transforming itself into a mobile games studio. With games accounting for the bulk of time and money spent on mobile, it stands to reasons that money would be left on the table if Rovio leaned exclusively on in-house developers. Read >

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Mobile Insights is a daily newsletter from BI Intelligence that collects and delivers the top mobile industry news. It is delivered first thing every morning exclusively to BI Intelligence subscribers. 

Mobile Ad Cost Per Impressions Rise In Second Quarter (MarketingCharts)
Mobile CPMs jumped 40% between March and June, according to a new study from Turn. That's a fraction of PC video ad rates, but approximates the price for desktop display ads. However, given the variability of prices across networks and the lack of data across advertising platforms, it's best to always take these studies with a grain of salt. Read >

Apple To Begin Production Of iPhone 5S This Month (Business Insider)
Jefferies analyst Peter Misek reports that production will begin at the end of this month. He believes that Apple has already started production on a low-cost iPhone and will ultimately put in 50 to 55 million iPhone orders for the fourth quarter. Read > 

Is The Smartphone Upgrade Cycle Shortening? (Business Insider)
AT&T, the second-largest U.S. carrier, has introduced a plan that will allow customers to upgrade their phone once a year. With the smartphone market slowing, more frequent upgrades may be one way to expand opportunities, for both carriers and manufacturers. Read > 

New Angry Birds Games To Be Released In September(Rovio)
The latest iteration the most popular mobile game will launch September 19. Read > 

Microsoft Is Reportedly Testing A Smartwatch (The Verge)
Another big tech company, eager not to miss out on the next smartphone or tablet, barrels into the smartwatch. We are skeptical of their efforts, as we laid out in a recent report. Read >

The Disruptive Potential Of Google Glass In Mobile Payments (Payments Source)
Square, LevelUp, and other mobile payments companies may see a whole spectrum of new opportunities open up if smart eyewear like Google Glass catches on. Read > 

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Mobile Insights is a daily newsletter from BI Intelligence delivered first thing every morning exclusively to BI Intelligence subscribers. Sign up for a free trial of BI Intelligence today.

Mobile Ad Cost Per Impressions Rise In Second Quarter (MarketingCharts)
Mobile CPMs jumped 40% between March and June, according to a new study from Turn. That's a fraction of PC video ad rates, but approximates the price for desktop display ads. However, given the variability of prices across networks and the lack of data across advertising platforms, it's best to always take these studies with a grain of salt. Read >

Apple To Begin Production Of iPhone 5S This Month (Business Insider)
Jefferies analyst Peter Misek reports that production will begin at the end of this month. He believes that Apple has already started production on a low-cost iPhone and will ultimately put in 50 to 55 million iPhone orders for the fourth quarter. Read > 

Is The Smartphone Upgrade Cycle Shortening? (Business Insider)
AT&T, the second-largest U.S. carrier, has introduced a plan that will allow customers to upgrade their phone once a year. With the smartphone market slowing, more frequent upgrades may be one way to expand opportunities, for both carriers and manufacturers. Read > 

New Angry Birds Games To Be Released In September(Rovio)
The latest iteration the most popular mobile game will launch September 19. Read > 

Microsoft Is Reportedly Testing A Smartwatch (The Verge)
Another big tech company, eager not to miss out on the next smartphone or tablet, barrels into the smartwatch. We are skeptical of their efforts, as we laid out in a recent report. Read >

The Disruptive Potential Of Google Glass In Mobile Payments (Payments Source)
Square, LevelUp, and other mobile payments companies may see a whole spectrum of new opportunities open up if smart eyewear like Google Glass catches on. Read > 

Join the conversation about this story »

This week was full of big news, including the announcement of the new iPhone 5S and 5C and the news that Twitter had filed for its IPO. 

Here are the numbers that defined the week in the mobile computing space: 

1. $549. That's what a new iPhone 5C will cost unlocked in the United States. It's reportedly even more expensive in China. Consumers around the world are moving away from subsidized phones on carrier contracts, so Apple's strategy of clinging to the high-end may not be that smart. 
2. 60%. The proportion of Samsung's business that comes from sales of low-end smartphones priced below $300. Apple is losing the long-term smartphone game because of its utter lack of a low-end strategy. 
3. $500-600 Million. The range of projections for Twitter's advertising revenue in 2013, according to PrivCo and eMarketer estimates. We'll know the exact number once Twitter's IPO filings become public. 
4. 65. That's the number of demand-side platforms or DSPs (mobile advertising buyers) that Twitter will have access to thanks to its $350 million acquisition Monday of MoPub, a mobile ad exchange. 
5. $3.4 billion. That's IAB's estimate for the size of the entire U.S. mobile advertising industry in 2012. Twitter is competing head-to-head with Facebook, Google, Apple, and others for those dollars. 
6. 60%.In a series of charts available only to BII subscribers, we calculate that if we put together smartphones, tablets and PCs, Android is now running on 60% of the world's computing devices. 
7. 88%. The growth of phablet shipments over the last 12 months across the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan. There's evidence that phablets (hybrid devices that straddle the line between phone and tablet) are cutting into tablet sales.
8. 400%. The crazy growth in the average daily number of photos uploaded on Snapchat over the last seven months, according to a BI Intelligence analysis. 
9. 15o million. The number of monthly active users on the Facebook-owned Instagram app, as of this week. Instagram and Snapchat are in increasingly heated competition. 
10. 5 million. The number of fans for the top brand on Google+, Angry Birds. The top 150 brands on Facebook all have 5 million fans or more. It's evidence of Facebook's dominance as a brand platform. (See chart, above.)

To access BI Intelligence's full archive of reports, downloadable charts and data, and to stay ahead of key mobile trends and developments, sign up for a free trial subscription here.

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Back in April, now-former Rovio EVP of Games Petri Järvilehto left the maker of Angry Birds to pursue his own gaming startup with Andrew Stalbow, Rovio's former EVP of strategic partnerships.

Finnish gaming startup Seriously won't release any titles until next year, but it seems to already be creating a lot of hype in Finland. Just last week, Seriously raised $2.4 million from Los Angeles-based Upfront Ventures and Scandinavian-based Sunstone Capital. 

With Seriously, the idea is to take advantage of the popularity of the "free-to-play" games and target "casual plus"gamers, Järvilehto tells Business Insider. It wants to create games that people play for days, weeks, months, and even years.

"I think we're absolutely finding our own way and own direction," Järvilehto says. "We're not planning to replicate Rovio."

Leaving Rovio required a certain amount of "irrational confidence"

"Well, I think Rovio was an incredible experience," Järvilehto says. "I had a great time building out the games unit."

The first game that Järvilehto built from prototype to launch was Angry Birds Space, which launched to much critical acclaim.

But at the same time, he says, the entire gaming industry is in an unprecedented situation.

"Mobile is effectively eating the world," he says. "It is such an incredible opportunity. This is the best possible time you can imagine. You look at the Rovios of the world and the Supercells of the world, and you can effectively build a company that goes from zero to billion in only a couple of years."

Even though it's seemingly an exciting time to start a gaming company, deciding to leave Rovio was not an easy decision for him. In fact, Järvilehto admits that he was quite scared to leave the company.

"Starting your own company and starting something like this requires a certain amount of irrational confidence." But at the same time, this is what I've been doing for my entire life basically. It's an industry that I know and love. You have to, to a certain extent, embrace uncertainty."

So are there any hard feelings between Rovio and Järvilehto? Nope, he says.

"I'm really looking forward to the next games Rovio will ship," he says. "Games are the engine driver. There's kind of a huge expectation. I think they'll be able to come up with some pretty incredible games going forward. I'm definitely rooting for the games unit to hit it out of the park."

The reason why he's still rooting for Rovio is because the two companies are not competing on a local market.

"We're competing on the global market," Järvilehto says. "The more success stories we have over here, the better off we all are." 

Though, it's worth mentioning that Seriously has offices in both Los Angeles, Calif. and Finland.

When it comes to the console business, he says he's not a believer 

"Console games to me feel like work," he says. "Now just the thought of walking all the way to the living room, turning on your console, downloading your PS3 update and forty minutes later, you're finally playing the game. It's much faster with mobile. I'm playing very few games on consoles anymore."

When it comes to consoles, he says he's not a big believer. There are numerous free options for entertainment these days. With iPads becoming more and more powerful, they are becoming even more of a threat to the console business. 

"This is something I'm betting my career on, so I hope I'm right," he says. "But everything is moving toward free-to-play and the console business is still trying to fight that. Once you start having free alternatives to things like GTA, it will be really interesting to see. Having worked on both mobile and console, the amount of friction that you have to deal with on the console is still massive."

Disclosure: Finnish funding agency Tekes and Finnfacts, a non-profit media service organization in Finland, paid for my trip to Helsinki to explore the startup scene.

SEE ALSO: Here's The Secret Behind The Multibillion Dollar Success Of The Startup That Made Clash Of Clans

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Rovio could very well become the next Disney.

Back in April, Rovio announced that it made just under $200 million in revenue in 2012. 

With Rovio's birthday coming up on Dec.11, we decided to take a peek inside its headquarters in Espoo, Finland. 

Rovio is located in Espoo, Finland, a town near Helsinki.

Upon entering the building, you'll see the Rovio showroom.

It's filled with big Angry Birds plush toys.