Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), sits on the board of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) That means the entertainment company is well aware of the power of Apple’s applications software distribution system on the iPhone, iPad and iPod.

Disney announced yesterday that it will buy iPhone game supplier firm Tapulus which has 35 million users. Its most widely used game, “Tap Tap Revenge”, has been played more that 1 billion times.According to Reuters, Tapulous is profitable and has about $1 million in revenue per month.

Disney said that Tapulous strengthens the company’s portfolio of games and entertainment offerings in the fast-growing mobile arena. Disney already has a large and quickly growing business in mobile interactive media.

Disney and old-line media companies are in the same race. They must use their brands and content to push into the world of handheld devices that have become a new platform for entertainment in addition to the TV and PC. Firms including Tapulous, Clickgamer, and Gameloft, none of which are part of major media companies, are dominating game sales made from the Apple Apps store.

Over three billion downloads have been made from the App store, many of them entertainment and game applications. More than a third of the top 25 downloads for the store are  games.

The acquisition of these game companies by larger entertainment firms will likely quicken as the larger firms buy what they cannot quickly and successfully build.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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