US video game manufacturers Gameloft and Electronic Arts are the leading producers of multi-platform mobile apps, according to the latest figures from Distimo. Both firms were found to offer the highest volumes of apps available in the US across all six of the largest mobile apps platforms: Apple’s App Store for iPhone and iPad, BlackBerry’s App World, Google’s Android Market, Nokia’s Ovi Store and Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace.

Based on July figures, Gameloft had 352 apps available in total, making it the largest ‘cross-store’ publisher. BlackBerry’s App World was Gameloft’s most popular platform, hosting 140 of its titles. Electronic Arts was the second-largest publisher with just over 300 apps available, while Handmark – a content rather than games publisher – was third.

However, none of these firms topped the list as the largest apps publisher at any individual store, reflecting the fact that the leading publisher on a specific platform can sometimes be the actual store owner. For example, the study found that Apple was the leading apps publisher for the iPad (Pages), RIM the main contributor to BlackBerry App World (BlackBerry Messenger and Facebook), and Microsoft the dominant player on the Windows platform (Microsoft My Phone). Exceptions occurred on the iPhone, Ovi, Android Market and Palm App Catalog platforms, where Clickgamer, Offscreen, Lupis Labs Software and SplashData, respectively, were deemed to be the top apps publishers. 

 
On the iPhone, Electronic Arts was deemed to be the platform’s top grossing publisher, even though it only has around half as many paid apps available as Clickgamer, which came second. Two other publishers – PopCap Games and Apple itself – were the third- and fourth-largest grossing iPhone App Store publishers, despite only having five and nine apps, respectively. Gameloft was named as the fifth-largest grossing publisher on the store.

 

The full Distimo report can be accessed here.