Disney Mobile throws its weight behind Android tablets (video)

By fixing problems with earlier versions of Android, Google has a chance to win over loyal iPhone developers to its mobile operating system, which can now support tablet computers.

One former Apple loyalist is Bart Decrem, former head of Tapulous, which was purchased by Disney last year. Tapulous has had more than 50 million downloads of its Tap Tap Revenge music rhythm games on the iPhone alone.

Today, Decrem, now an executive in charge of Disney Mobile, announced that Disney is doing three mobile apps for the tablet-focused Honeycomb version of Android, which Google showed off today. Disney will release the Jelly Car game, Radio Disney music app, and Tap Tap Revenge 4 for Honeycomb. The apps will debut whenever Honeycomb-based devices, such as the Motorola Xoom, are released into the market. That’s going to be a matter of days or weeks.

Decrem said that Disney waited for Google to make much-needed changes for Android, including a new Android Market that supports in-app purchases, or the ability for users to buy a virtual good or premium content from within an application, while the app is running. That is the entire business model for Tap Tap Revenge, which has seen more than 25 million downloads of songs for use in the game, where you tap on the screen to the beat of a song.

Check out our video interview with Decrem, who was showing off the new apps at Google’s Honeycomb event today.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xZuITkbCJY&w=425&h=344]

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.