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Hands-On Mobile, mostly known for its mobile games business, now hopes to tap into the outside developer community. The company is leveraging mixt, its lesser known thin client portal, to increase the distribution of web-based applications. Hands-On Mobile Developer Network, which is open for beta after a couple months of testing with hand-picked developers, is a new business area for the developer. "Any developer with no mobile experience can build an application just as rich as we do," CTO Michael Temkin told mocoNews. Hands-On Mobile is offering a 60-40 revenue split with developers. For reference, Apple ( NSDQ: AAPL ) recently introduced an industry-best 70-30 split on application fees. In general, there's a lot of hype about the opportunity to "tap into" developers, but the market is getting even more fragmented with new platforms entering the stage quite often. With built-in support for general billing and advertising from AdMob, Millenial Media and JumpTap, Hands-On Mobile is enabling developers to make money with ads, premium fees, subscriptions or micro transactions. With all of the content being refreshed on the server side rather than through a handset download, developers can write their applications in familiar XML code and let Hands-On Mobile make sure it renders correctly on more than 500 mobile phone models. The company hopes it can attract major media companies that might not have dedicated mobile development teams, but are otherwise looking to make greater plays in mobile. The platform also frees developers up from having to build applications that apply to the lowest common denominator. Developers can sign up for the beta program and submit their applications for usual carrier compliance testing online. Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page

London-based Connect2Media , a publisher of mobile content, which just merged with the European operations of Hands-On, said it has acquired RayFusion, an Israeli-based mobile content distributor. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition will enable RayFusion to expand its distribution to include carrier accounts in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, Connect2Media said in a release today. RayFusion will operate as a standalone entity with operational independence from Connect2Media. It will retain its name and corporate identity and there will be no changes to its personnel or operations. However Connect2Media will help strengthen RayFusion by assisting in developing new mobile content technology. Release. Related Hands-On Mobile Sheds European Business; Merges With Connect 2 Media As Minority Shareholder Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page

The latest mobile games report from Nielsen Mobile shows in startling detail how hard it is to make money in this business. Of the 141 publishers tracked, shockingly few—only 55—made money through U.S. carrier partnerships in the second quarter. Even more striking, a majority of revenues—62 percent—are made by the top five publishers, which is up from 60 percent only a year ago. The private report, released to game publishers this week, was also shared with us. That suggests the 86 companies that did not bill any revenue through U.S. carriers during the quarter made money by selling games direct to the consumer, however, it couldn't be that promising since most content is still distributed through the carrier. Of course, there's also international sales, which were not included in this data. Nielsen Mobile said the numbers change when including off-deck, but not substantially. Top five mobile games publishers in Q2: Top five mobile game categories in Q2 (market share): Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page

Last week EA announced its acquisition of the Korean division of Hands-On Mobile, the mobile gaming company formerly known as Mforma. At that time, no financial details were released, but now digging through EA's annual report, filed late in Friday, the amount is known: it is $29 million in cash, when the acquisition closes. From the filing: " In April 2008, we entered into definitive agreements to acquire certain assets from Hands-On Mobile Inc. and its affiliates relating to its Korean mobile games business based in Seoul, Korea. The purchase price to be paid for the assets at closing will be approximately $29 million in cash. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close during our first quarter of fiscal 2009." Hands-On bought MobileGame Korea in 2004, and that became Hands-On Korea after the parent company rebranded. Whereever you are, our streamlined mobile application brings you the latest headlines with unprecedented speed. Visit http://paidcontent.org/mobile to learn more.