Palo Alto based SGN today released that they will be opening their gaming network up to other developers. SGN is already the largest app developer for the iPhone and accounts for 30% of the phone's app downloads. Punch Entertainment, famous for 'Reign of Swords', and Smallmedium, known for the eMees Avatar Creator, have already signed onto SGN's network.

Since the app market first opened up, SGN has been on the cutting edge of developmental trends. They have designed several original games, including Agency Wars and iBowl, and pioneered an exciting new method of marketing their products.

SGN's games contain banner ads for their other applications. Users can download these advertised apps while they play. Downloading an advertised app not only gets you the application, but comes with other in-game benefits as well. SGN is the first app designer to offer app downloads for in-game benefits, and the program looks to be a stunning success so far.

Since partnership inside SGN's network is free for other developers, we can expect to see a lot of other app designers signing up soon. SGN offers profit-sharing from within the network, and being connected to SGN's 12 million iPhone users is a great opportunity for any app developer.

SGN have been leaders in the app market for awhile now (they control 24% of the iPhone app world) and it looks like they've managed to jump ahead of the curve yet again. A combined network like SGN is offering is too good of an idea to not succeed. The application market is one that benefits very heavily from internal advertising, and I expect this bold experiment to net SGN and her allied developers a lot of money.