Mr. Lyalin knew the mobile market was shifting from paid games to free-to-download games that offer in-app purchases.

WSJ: Costs Mount for Mobile-Game Launches

Amazon announced an In-App Purchasing service, making it easy for Amazon Appstore developers to offer digital content and subscriptions for purchase within apps and games that are available on millions of Kindle Fires and other Android devices.

ENGADGET: Amazon's Q1 2012 earnings: net income down 35 percent to $130 million, net sales at $13.18 billion

's shopper-rewards app in about half of its 338 properties, and is developing its own app to offer group discounts.

WSJ: Malls Test Apps to Aid Shoppers

Natively supported in iOS and Android, the AAC-ELD codec is now readily available to app developers and service providers to offer superior VoIP applications that run at the Full-HD Voice quality level.

ENGADGET: Fraunhofer releases its 'CD-like' audio codecs to developers, lends a little HiFi to VoIP apps

This offer is a toe in the waters, and a way to calculate the benefits of in-app sales over a cover price for the game.

FORBES: Connect