The PocketGamer.biz week that was: 5 million iPhone 5s, 25 billion Android apps and the 2012 F2P Summit

With this week playing host to the latest F2P Summit in London's trendy Shoreditch, I thought this would be the right time and place in which to have a good natter about free-to-play gaming.

But PocketGamer.biz editor Keith Andrew has beaten me to it, simultaneously delivering an articulate defence of the freemium business model and robbing me of a topic of discussion.

Rather than dwelling on my thwarted intentions, however, I thought I'd consider at the issue from another angle.

As Mr. Andrew points out, the great freemium debate is over. And, in case you missed it, freemium won. It takes no more than a cursory glance at the App Store top grossing games charts to see that freemium is a success story, not an encroaching fad.

But that's not to say that I'm unsympathetic to the complaints of freemium haters. Many freemium titles are bad games that nag for ratings and cash. Many feel exploitative on a basic level.

Nonetheless, the point is, it's not an essential characteristic of the model, and those who argue otherwise have mistaken their bad experience with individuals for evidence of a bad category. No wonder Boss Alien's Jason Avent likened freemium haters to xenophobes.

I'd argue that freemium, then, is a neutral thing – neither good nor bad.

Implementation is the key, and it is design that makes the difference between money-grubbing horror show and great (profitable) game. But that's enough noise from me – let's move on to our bite-sized overview of the last seven days' worth of news.

• Apple announces that more than 5 million iPhone 5s were sold during its first weekend on shelves, comfortably surpassing the 4 million total set by the iPhone 4S on its debut weekend.
• CEO Victoria Trofimova explains how redesigning for iPad saw the ARPDAU double for Nordcurrent's 101-in-1 Games.
• Barnes & Noble announces a pair of low-price, high resolution tablets for the UK market: the Nook HD and the Nook HD+.
• "The BlackBerry platform offers a significant revenue opportunity for developers," according to Marmalade CTO Tim Closs.
• Google announces that more than 25 billion apps have now been downloaded from Google Play.

• Equity-based crowdfunding platform Gambitious launches, offering backers a real stake in gaming projects rather than trinkets and rewards.
• Pocket Gamer editor in chief Kristan Reed examines how crowdfunding has shifted the balance of power between publisher and developer – possibly forever.

• This week's edition of the PocketGamer.biz Charticle examines the invasion of the casino games, and finds that these titles monetise especially well.
• A "gamer's game" with a premium business model just won't make money on the App Store, says Totem Games co-founder Matt Cavanagh.

• Lightwood Games CEO Chris Newman calls out Apple's "catastrophic" App Store update in iOS 6…
• …So we catch up with Newman for a chat, in which he explains how these App Store alterations have pushed him towards other platforms.
• Fiksu's marketing director Viki Zabala serves up a one-stop guide to app marketing.

• The PocketGamer.biz mobile mavens debate the future of mobile, making a few wild predictions along the way.
• Will Luton stepped down as creative director of Mobile Pie last week, so we catch up with him to discuss what's next and how the industry's changed during his time making mobile games.
• The sense of anticlimax surrounding the iPhone 5 unveiling highlights the industry's sense of entitlement, says iQU's Fraser MacInnes.

• Gamesbrief's Nicholas Lovell presents his 15 basic rules for successful free-to-play games.
• Freemium haters are 'xenophobic', according to Boss Alien's Jason Avent.
• PocketGamer.biz editor Keith Andrew emerged from the F2P Summit a changed man, and explains why the time has come to give freemium haters the heave ho.

Click here for all of PocketGamer.biz's coverage from the F2P Summit 2012 in one handy list.