—Apple App Store Problems: There’s been a couple of stories about problems with selling stuff on the iTunes App Store, although I don’t think they are specific to that distribution channel. For example, James Bossert was happy that his Whack ‘em All iPhone game had 400 new users in one day last week, but that changed when he found that only 12 people had paid 99c for the game—the rest were using a cracked version. I think the person who cracked and released the game had some pretty spurious arguments for what he did (if the apps are crap, why bother cracking them?) but rather than squeal Bossert decided to try try putting ads in his game reports CNet, no verdict on whether it works, but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, CrunchGear has a story about Runkeeper, which had to be offered free for a day so as not to upset current users when the developer upgraded the license. Seems like a limited issue, but still. Finally, Offerpal is coming to the iPhone in the next few weeks, which should give another way to monetize applications. MobileCrunch writes: “Offerpal Media thinks they’ve found the answer to monetizing iPhone applications. Built around the same system they have in place for development on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and a number of other platforms, end users are able to participate in a variety of offers (from online surveys to product trials) in exchange for virtual currency. Users spend this currency on in-app goods, and the developers get paid.”

The rest is after the jump...

—Spoken Books On 3UK: Audiobook-for-mobile company GoSpoken has signed a deal with 3UK to offer its books in text or audio format, with prices ranging from 5-10 pounds (US$7.50 to $15) or in parts for a cheaper price. There are more than 1,000 titles on offer, including a dozen military novels by Andy McNab (founder of GoSpoken) as well as books from Stephen King, Ian McEwan and Patricia Cornwell. (Guardian)

—Hasbro Gambling: Hasbro has licensed four of its games to Probability, a London-based mobile gambling company which will now create “cash games” based on Subbuteo, Trivial Pursuit, Connect Four and Battleship. (iGamingBusiness)

—BuzzCity Sees Strong Ads Growth: Singapore-based mobile ad companyBuzzCity has released some figures showing good growth in its business. Indonesia is its strongest market, doubling in the fourth quarter to 3.6 billion banners served, but its United States business also grew 47 percent to 382 million. It’s a single company so not much can be made of its figures, but it does support claims from Admob that the market is increasing. (VentureBeat)

—3G Penetration Picking Up: The base of WCDMA 3G subscribers more than doubled during both 2006 and 2007, and by June 2008 there were more than 235 million WCDMA subscribers, a 6.4 percent penetration of worldwide mobile subscribers and 11 percent if only WCDMA markets are considered. There were about 100 million EVDO subscribers. (Reportlinker)