Glu Mobile still isn't benefitting greatly from the iPhone effect, having reported revenues of $19.6 million for Q3 this year - down 18% year-on-year.

Around $500,000 of those revenues came from next-generation platforms like iPhone and Android, according to CEO Greg Ballard, speaking during Glu's analyst call. The company spent more than double that on R&D for these platforms during the quarter.

The company posted a net loss of $4 million for the quarter - an improvement from the net loss of $54.2 million in Q3 2008, although that included a $46.6 million goodwill impairment charge.

Glu is chuffed with the fact that it generated $2.7 million of cash from operations during Q3 this year, though.

Growth was flat in North America and strong in Asia-Pacific, but the company continues to face challenges in Europe - or "market erosion" as it puts it.

Advertisement

Ballard claimed during the call that at one point in October, Glu was the third-ranking company on iPhone in terms of market share, and was optimistic about managing to launch games like Family Guy: Uncensored and Super KO Boxing 2 at a $4.99 price point.

Ballard also reiterated Glu's intention of competing with Playfish, the social games company launched by its former Euro boss Kristian Segerstrale to make games for Facebook and other social networks.

"The success of Playfish and Zynga has caught the attention of many in the industry," says Ballard. "I think most observers would say that it is early enough that additional winners can still emerge in the space. Glu is devoting significant resources into becoming one of those winners."

Other stats: own-IP titles accounted for 22% of Glu's revenues during Q3, down from 28% last year. Verizon Wireless accounted for 20% of Glu's Q3 revenues, and China Mobile 10%. And Glu paid out $5.8 million in royalties during the quarter - 30% of its revenues.

Finally, Ballard was asked about the impact of Nokia's decision to roll its N-Gage service into the Ovi Store. His response reflects that of a number of big publishers.

"We were not entirely surprised to see that announcement. The Nokia folks had been pretty clear over the course of the last several months, if not quarters, the direction that they are going to go was away from N-Gage," he said.

"Several quarters ago, we realized that the promise of the N-Gage was not going to materialize. So, we had already moved resources away from it, had not published a game on it in quite some time. We are past our mourning stage, if you will on that service... We nod the Nokia for a well tried effort but it did not work out"