Angry Birds to Hit Emerging Markets

We've all played it. You know, the one where you slingshot birds into different pigs to destroy everything.

The popular game we all know is hitting developing economies to target the non-smartphone market. Developer Rovio Mobile has reached huge success in developed countries with the Angry Birds game app, getting up to 400 million downloads across various devices and platforms.

Rovio wants to expand to countries like China, India, and Africa. The company started out by making a version of the game for Nokia's Series 40 cellphones, which, despite what we may think, still sell very widely in developing countries. Rovio and Nokia announced their official partnership at the Nokia World conference in London as the new Asha Series 40 phones rolled out.

Marketing chief Peter Vesterbacka says he's thrilled about making the Angry Birds experience to everyone everywhere. He hopes that working with Nokia will double the 400 million downloads they currently have.

The Nokia Asha will be one of the handsets that will come preloaded with Angry Birds. Only the demo version of the app will come with the Asha, but downloading the full version will be easily accessible through Nokia's own app store. The Asha may not be up there with the smartphones we're used to here, but Nokia's senior vice president of developer experience and marketplace Marco Argenti says that usage is still significant and comparable to the smartphone marketplaces.

Nokia's app store gets about 10 million downloads per day and a third of them are coming from Series 40 handsets, Argenti explains. Along with strong downloads in China and India, Vietnam, Brazil, and Mexico are also quickly catching up.

Rovio's strategy to expand to the developing market is just one aspect of growth with this emerging developer. Selling everything from plush toys to board games, Rovio believes they've evolved into more than a game company. Vesterbacka also talked about combining Angry Birds' virtual and physical presences in the world. One example was Rovio's partnership with Barnes & Noble where players, who visited the bookstores and played the game there, were awarded special features.

Vesterbacka did not mention anything about how much Angry Birds is generating their revenue, but he did tell The Guardian that they're profitable enough to fund [their] own growth.

One last exciting bit is that Vesterbacka reveals we may be seeing Angry Birds games out of its current gameplay into more advanced gameplay. Will Angry Birds hit gaming consoles next?