If you haven’t been paying attention to the mobile market at all or you aren’t a gamer you might have missed out on what is being called the first big hit of the mobile age of gaming.  Of course, I’m willing to bet that you have at least a small clue as to what I’m talking about.  Angry Birds has been heralded as “one of the great runaway hits of 2010” not just in the gaming market but in the cultural climate as a whole.  It’s become almost a part of the cultural lexicon and has showed up on a bunch of different types of media outlets, including major news stations.

There are 5 angry birds!

To understand what has made this game such a phenomenon we must first look at the mobile market.  Here we have a developing market that is still in its infancy as far as the progress that we’re likely to see in the next decade.  Everything is going to be so shockingly new and exciting that Angry Birds might look like Pong looks to us in relation to today’s computer games.  That being said, it’s still an impressive entry into the market and has taken it over almost completely.  Every single gaming company is trying to break down how Angry Birds sold so many copies, how it’s so addictive and how they can make a game just as successful and meaningful.
Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen for a lot of these companies simply because you can’t replicate magic.  Magic is magic, and Angry Birds just happened to tap into that perfect blend of likability, storyline and pure fun that helped it climb up the App Store charts until it was number one for quite some time.
What’s even better is the fact that Rovio Mobile doesn’t nickel and dime their customers like a lot of the app developers out there.  Most companies will force you to shell out a couple extra dimes or cents for any upgrade or feature boost in the next iteration of the product.  Angry Birds decided to just launch new bonus levels and unlockables free of charge.  Of course, they did release some standalone packages that cost extra, but by that time fans were so excited to see the new content that they were happy to pay the money – and probably would have paid even more if Rovio decided to charge more.
I suspect we will look back at Angry Birds and see that they were quite the game changer in the mobile market.  It’s still in its infancy and companies like Rovio have the potential to completely shape the direction that it goes in due to their large influence and market cap.  They are thought leaders in the space and seem poised to stay in that position for some time to come, provided they don’t do anything dumb and lose their lead.  Then again, the next Angry Birds could be right around the corner and none of us would have the slightest idea!